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74TH CONGRESS 1
2d Session \
SENATE
/DOCUMENT
I No. 199
THE WESTERN RANGE
LETTER
FROM
THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
TRANSMITTING
IN RESPONSE TO SENATE RESOLUTION No. 289
A REPORT ON THE WESTERN RANGE— A GREAT BUT
NEGLECTED NATURAL RESOURCE
APRIL 24 (calendar day, APRIL 29), 1936.— Referred to the
Committee on Agriculture and Forestry and
ordered to be printed with illustrations
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1936
LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
Washington, April 28, 1936.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE.
SIR : In compliance with the request in Senate Resolution 289 (74th
Cong., 2d sess.), introduced by Senator Norris, I have the honor to
submit herewith a report on the range problem of the western United
States prepared by the Forest Service of this Department.
The resolution reads:
Whereas large parts of the western range have been subject to unrestricted
use since Settlement and are commonly believed to be more or less seriously
depleted; and
Whereas the range resource constitutes one of the major sources of wealth
to the Nation ; and
Whereas the Department of Agriculture has through many years of research
and of administration of the national forests accumulated a large amount of
information on the original and present condition of the range resource, the
factors which have led to the present condition, and the social and economic
importance of the range and its conservation to the West and to the entire
United States: Therefore be it
Resolved, That the Secretary of Agriculture be, and hereby is, requested to
transmit to the Senate at his earliest convenience a report incorporating this
information, together with recommendations as to constructive measures.
In transmitting this report I shall resist the temptation, despite
my great personal interest in the range question, to comment at
length on its findings and recommendations, and instead merely
emphasize three of the most important phases of the discussion.
1. The first of these is the astonishing degree to which the western
range resource has been neglected, despite its magnitude and
importance.
One indication of this neglect is the lack of public knowledge.
The general public knows less of the range resource, and as a result
has been and is less concerned about its condition and conservation
than of any other of our important natural resources. This is true
in spite of the fact that the range occupies about two-fifths of the
total land area of the United States and three-fourths of that of the
range country ; that the range territory produces about 75 percent of
the national output of wool and mohair, and in pounds about 55 per-
cent of the sheep and lambs, and nearly one-third of the cattle and
calves. In fact, this report represents the first attempt, although
much of the range has been grazed for 50 years at least, to make an
all-inclusive survey of the range resource, its original and present
condition, the causes and effects of changes, the social and economic
function which it does and should render to the West and to the
Nation, and, finally, to outline practical solutions for at least the
more important problems.
m
iv LETTEKS OP TKANSMITTAL
The entire history of public-land disposal under both Federal and
State laws reflects this neglect. These laws have with few excep-
tions been framed and administered without regard to range condi-
tions and requirements. The result is an ownership pattern so com-
plex that satisfactory handling of the range is seriously handicapped.
In this pattern is intermingled an enormous area that all of the
available information indicates is sujbmarginal for private ownership.
Further evidence of neglect is failure to regulate the use of range
lands in such a way as to maintain the resource. This failure has
been so general under all classes of ownership that in contrast ex-
amples of good management are decidedly conspicuous. The result
is serious and practically universal range and soil depletion, which
already has gone far toward the creation of a permanent desert over
enormous areas. An even more serious result has been an appalling
waste of the human resource. And three-fourths of the range area is
still on the down grade.
The commonly accepted theory that private ownership in itself is
enough of an incentive to insure the satisfactory handling of range
lands has proved to be true only in the case of exceptional ranches.
State range lands have been leased without provision for the man-
agement of the resource or its perpetuation. Federal holdings are
scattered among many bureaus in several departments. The national
forests, which afford an example of large-scale range conservation,
are administered by the Department of Agriculture. The grazing
districts, which are only now being placed under administration after
a half century or more of neglect, and the public domain, which is still
subject to unrestricted use, fall under the Department of the Interior.
These three classes of land make up the bulk of Federal holdings.
Neglect is further shown by the meager scale of research by both the
Federal and State Governments. A reasonable program of research
might have prevented many serious mistakes and maladjustments.
Extension to carry research findings in better range practices to pri-
vate owners has been practically nonexistent.
2. The second phase of the situation to which I wish to call atten-
tion is the fundamental character both of the range resource and of
its use.
They have to do with land; with the production on that land of
forage crops, with the utilization of the crops in livestock and, in a
lesser degree, wildlife production ; with the management of land and
its forage cover to obtain watershed protection and the services needed
primarily by agriculture for irrigation. Effectiveness in all of these
things depends upon the biological and agricultural sciences. In
short, they are a part, and in the West one of the most important
parts, of agriculture.
Furthermore, through the free play of economic forces, range live-
stock production — once almost wholly an independent pastoral enter-
prise— and cropland agriculture have become closely integrated, in-
separable parts of the agricultural structure of the West. Except for
specialty farms, a high percentage of the hundreds of thousands of
western farm or ranch units represent widely varying combinations
of range and crop agriculture. More than one-third of the feed for
range livestock now comes from croplands or irrigated pastures.
Problems of one part have become problems of both. Major malad-
justments in either — of which there are far too many — now inevitably
LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL V
affect the other. No comprehensive program can be prepared for
either which does not take the other definitely into account.
3. The third phase of the range situation to which I wish to call
attention is a limited number of remedial measures of outstanding
importance among the many that are required. The range problem
as a whole has been allowed to drift for so long that its difficulties
have been accentuated. It has become exceedingly broad and com-
plex, beginning with the basic soil resource at the one extreme, and
extending through a wide range of overlapping interrelated problems
to human welfare at the other. No single measure offers hope of
more than a partial solution.
One of the most important of the measures required is to place all
range lands under management that will stop depletion and restore
and thereafter maintain the resource in perpetuity, while at the same
time permitting its use. This will involve many difficult operations
such, for example, as drastic reductions of stock on overgrazed ranges.
It will involve various forms of use such as livestock grazing, water-
shed services, wildlife production, etc., which should be so correlated
as to obtain the maximum private and public benefits.
A second line of action involves the return to public ownership of
lands so low in productivity, or so seriously devastated, or requiring
such large expenditures to protect high public values, that private
owners can hold them only at a loss. Closely related are a far-reach-
ing series of adjustments in size of ownership units to make both
private and public ownership feasible and effective, each in its proper
sphere.
A third line of action is to put jurisdiction over publicly owned
range lands on a sound basis. Unquestionably the only plan which
can be defended is to concentrate responsibility for the administration
of Federal lands in a single department to avoid unnecessary duplica-
tions, excessive expenditures, and fundamental differences in policies,
and to obtain the highest efficiency in administration and the maxi-
mum of service to users. Since the administration of the range
resource and its use is agriculture, and since the administration of
federally owned ranges can and should be used as an affirmative means
in the rehabilitation of western agriculture, the grazing districts and
the public domain should be transferred to the Department of Agri-
culture.
Furthermore, the concentration of jurisdiction over federally owned
range lands is a vitally important step toward the concentration in a
single department of the still more inclusive functions, including aid
and services to private owners of range lands, which should be exer-
cised by the Federal Government on the entire range problem. Such
a concentration is a fundamental principle of good organization if
the Federal Government is to redeem its full responsibility in the
restoration and care of this much-neglected resource.
The States have similar jurisdictional problems which demand
attention.
A fourth measure which should be emphasized is the wide scope
of research necessary to put range use for all purposes on a sound
footing. ^ Closely related is extension, which will carry the informa-
tion obtained to the private owner and help him constructively in its
application.
VI LETTERS OP TBANSMITTAL
With these and other recommendations of the Forest Service, I am
in general accord, and I hope that in carrying them out there need not
be too serious a delay, since further delay will merely serve to accen-
tuate difficulties and increase costs.
The solution of the range problem can be made an important con-
tribution to the conservation of our natural resources. It can be made
an important contribution to the rehabilitation of western agriculture.
Finally, and most important, it can be made an important contribu-
tion to social and economic security and human welfare. Public
neglect is partly responsible for the aggravated character of the range
problem, and this makes all the more urgent and necessary public
action toward its solution.
Respectfully,
H. A. WALLACE, Secretary.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
FOREST SERVICE,
Washington, April 28, 1936.
The SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.
DEAR MR. SECRETARY: I am transmitting herewith the report re-
quested in Senate Resolution 289. This incorporates information
obtained by many years of research on the range and watershed
problems, by special surveys which have been under way for several
years, and by 30 years' administration of the national forests. It
includes the pertinent information now available in the Forest
Service and that which could be obtained from other Federal and
State agencies. It necessarily has the limitations inherent in the
first attempt to treat the range resource as a whole, but it is believed
that its findings are essentially sound.
One of the primary reasons for the neglect, and hence the serious
depletion of the range resource and a series of major maladjust-
ments in land use, has been a division of responsibility among public
agencies. No one Federal agency has been responsible for an all-
inclusive, affirmative handling of the entire range problem. A sim-
ilar situation obtains for every western State in which the range
is an important factor.
If the Federal Government is to redeem its responsibilities, one
of the first and most important needs is, therefore, the concentra-
tion of responsibility in a single Federal department. This should
include responsibility for whatever additional and feasible action
is required to put privately owned range lands in a satisfactory
status. Such concentration affords the only effective way to stop
the depletion of ranges under way for 50 years, and to start them
on the upgrade. Furthermore, such concentration affords the only
effective means to integrate range use soundly with the other forms
of western agriculture of which it is an essential part. Since the
problem is wholly agricultural, concentration must be in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
To redeem their obligations, the States must face and meet sim-
ilar problems of jurisdiction and responsibility.
Sincerely yours,
F. A. SILCOX,
Chief, Forest Service.
HIGH LIGHTS
1. The range area of 728 million acres is nearly 40 percent of the
total land area of the continental United States; more than 99 per-
cent is available for livestock grazing.
2. About half the range area, or 376 million acres, is in private
ownership. One-third, or 239 million acres, is Federal range,
divided among national forests, grazing districts, public domain, and
other withdrawals and reservations.
3. Forage depletion for the entire range area averages more than
half ; the result of a few decades of livestock grazing.
4. Range depletion on the public domain and grazing districts
averages 67 percent, on private, Indian, and State and county lands
about half, and on national forests 30 percent.
5. Three-fourths of the entire range area has declined during the
last 30 years, and only 16 percent has improved.
6. During the same period 95 percent of the public domain and
grazing districts has gone downgrade and only 2 percent has im-
proved. For other forms of ownership and control corresponding
figures are : Private lands 85 and 10, State and county lands 88 and 7,
Indian lands 75 and 10, national forests 5 and 77.
7. Only about 95 million acres of the entire range area is in reason-
ably satisfactory condition. Nearly half of the national forest range
and 12 percent of private ownership falls in this category. The rea-
sonably satisfactory areas in other ownerships are inconsequential.
Probably not much over 5 percent of the entire range area is in a
thoroughly satisfactory condition.
8. An outstanding cause of range depletion has been excessive
stocking. Some 17.3 million animal units are now grazed on ranges
which it is estimated can carry only 10.8 million. The removal of
the surplus is the most effective way to stop depletion and start the
range on the upgrade.
9. About seven-tenths, or 523 million acres, of the range area is
still subject to practically unrestricted grazing.
10. Precipitation in the range country averages less than one-
third that of the Middle West and East. One to 4 drought years
out of 10 characterize practically all of the range area. The failure
to recognize in stocking the wide and direct fluctuation of forage
production with precipitation has been one primary cause of
depletion.
11. Among financial handicaps to the range livestock producer,
possibly the most serious, is the marketing differential, mainly
freight, which for Idaho is nearly $8.50 for an 1,100-pound steer in
the Chicago market as compared with Illinois.
12. The one best answer to this and other financial handicaps is
cheap range feed, which costs only one-fifth to one-tenth as much as
hay or other supplemental feed. But serious depletion of range feed
has been practically universal, and heavy supplemental feeding has
been necessary.
vn
VIII HIGH LIGHTS
13. Unsuitable land laws and policies have made the range a be-
wildering mosaic of different kinds of ownerships and of uneconomic
units, which together constitute a serious obstacle to range manage-
ment and profitable livestock production.
14. Range livestock production was once almost wholly pastoral.
Thirty-five percent of the feed for western livestock is now supple-
mental feeds raised on croplands or irrigated pastures — a threefold
increase in 45 years. Except for highly specialized crop farming,
mostly on irrigated land, western agriculture is now primarily an
integration of range livestock grazing and crop farming.
15. Excluding irrigation improvements, the 1930 census values
farm lands and buildings, privately owned range lands, and farm
and range livestock, etc., at nearly 12.9 billion dollars.
16. Most spectacular among the maladjustments of range-land use
has been the attempt to use more than 50 million acres for dry-land
farming. About half, ruined for forage production for years to come,
has already been abandoned for cultivation, much of it even before
going to patent.
IT. A more serious but much less spectacular maladjustment has
been the private acquisition of many million acres, either submar-
ginal for private ownership as shown by high tax delinquency and
relief rolls, abandonment, etc., or having high public values for
watershed protection which private owners cannot maintain, or both.
18. Four-fifths of the 232 million acres which yield 85 percent of
the water of the major western streams is range land, and low pre-
cipitation makes water the limiting factor in nearly all western
development.
19. No less than 589 million acres of range land is eroding more or
less seriously, reducing soil productivity and impairing watershed
services. Three-fifths of this area is adding to the silt load of major
western streams.
20. It will probably require more than 50 years of management to
restore the depleted range sufficiently to carry even the 17.3 million
livestock units now grazed, and probably an additional 50 years to
restore it to the nearest possible approach to its original grazing
capacity of 22.5 million units.
21. Action of greatest immediate urgency and importance is to —
Stop soil and forage depletion, and start both on the upgrade ;
Reduce excessive stocking, place all range lands under man-
agement, and restore cheap range feed;
Rectify land ownership and use maladjustments, and obtain a
sound distribution of ownership between private and public
agencies ;
Build up economic private and public units ;
Balance and integrate crop and range use ;
Correlate the livestock, watershed, forest, wildlife, and recrea-
tion forms of range-land uses and services ;
Obtain a recognition of the responsibility of stewardship by
private owners;
Minimize or remove various financial handicaps of stock pro-
ducers ;
HIGH LIGHTS IX
[Reconcile range conservation and the financial needs of State
institutions ;
Solve the tax delinquency problem;
Place public lands under the supervision of agricultural
agencies as a step toward unification of public responsibility for
the entire range problem. Provide on such lands for a sound
distribution of grazing privileges, and prevent the establishment
of prescriptive rights;
Obtain and apply the information necessary for the conserva-
tion and wise use of the range resource;
Prevent human wastage and insure social and economic
security.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The preparation of this report has largely been a group effort in
which a large number of Forest Service employees have participated.
Authorship credited under the various titles only partially indicates
the contribution made by these authors, who for the most part have
also given a large amount of time and effort to the technical review
and constructive criticism of sections other than their own.
The following employees whose names do not appear as authors
contributed in such ways as the compilation of data and the
preparation of material for the report, or in the critical review of
manuscripts, or in an advisory capacity :
C. A. Anderson, John Bancker, Miss Frances L. Beckwith, Dr.
Miriam L. Bomhard, Miss Theo Campbell, George H. Dacy, Jerry
Dahl, W. A. Dayton, E. L. Demmon, K. M. De Nio, L. A. Dremolski,
E. J. Dyksterhius, Miss Doris Hayes, C. F. Hunn, E. W. Kelley, R. F.
Knoth, Albert Pierson, Dr. Oran Raber, C. E. Rachford, R. V. Rey-
nolds, C. S. Robinson, Marshall Thayer, R. S. Wallace, J. C. Whitham.
The statistical and much of the other basic material was organized
under the supervision of Arthur Upson.
A still larger group at the western forest and range experiment
stations, regional offices, and on the national forests has over a period
of several years collected the large volume of data which has consti-
tuted the main basis for the report.
In addition, a considerable number of Government units, both
within and without the Department of Agriculture, have cooperated
generously in supplying needed information ; among these, acknowl-
edgment is due especially to the Agricultural Adjustment Adminis-
tration, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, the Bureau of
Biological Survey, the Farm Credit Administration, the Rural Reset-
tlement Administration, the Weather Bureau, and the Bureau of the
Census. The ready cooperation of the State agricultural experiment
stations in a number of the Western States was also of great assistance.
THE WESTERN RANGE
A GREAT BUT NEGLECTED NATURAL RESOURCE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I. The major range problems and their solution — A re'sume' 1
Major findings 3
Serious range depletion practically universal 3
Depletion resulted from a few outstanding causes 9
Range use an integral part of western agriculture 16
Serious social and economic losses 19
Range conservation the exception 29
Resilience of range livestock production 35
Drastic remedial action required 37
To restore and maintain the range 41
For private lands and livestock 45
In public land administration 51
In research and extension 59
In legislation 61
Costs and returns 63
The key to remedial action 66
Is remedial action worth while? 67
If no action is taken 67
The benefits from restoration 68
II. The virgin range 71
A detailed picture of virgin range types 72
What the range resource offered a growing Nation 80
III. The white man's toll 81
Forage depletion in the principal range types 84
A century's toll in "free use" of the range 108
IV. How and why 117
History of range use 119
The great boom in range cattle, 1880-85 119
Genesis of the boom 120
The collapse of the boom 122
Recovery — striving for security on the cattle range 123
Increase in sheep accentuated bitter struggle for range 125
Settlement intensifies tendency to range depletion 127
Establishment of public-land control a stabilizing f actor. __ 129
World War boom and post-war depression bring heavy de-
mands on range 130
Drought added to excess stocking works havoc on range __ 131
Issues growing out of range-use history 132
Climatic fluctuations 135
Climatic fluctuations on western ranges 135
Seasonal fluctuations 136
Drought years 138
The menace in a recurrence of dry years 139
Progressive deficiencies 141
Corresponding fluctuations in range vegetation 142
Range forage production declines in dry years 143
Effect of dry seasons on grazing use 145
Vegetative stand decreases after drought 145
Cyclic fluctuations in vegetative growth 147
Climatic guides to permanent range use 148
Excessive stocking 151
Evidence of excessive stocking 152
Numbers of livestock within range area 153
Numbers of livestock on range and other feed 154
Evidence afforded by range deterioration itself 161
Evidence afforded by present stocking and estimated
grazing capacity- ._ 164
Evidence afforded by serious losses and unsatisfactory
production 165
XI
XII TABLE OF CONTENTS
IV. How and why — Continued.
Excessive stocking-<k)ntinued.
Causes of excessive stocking 168
Competition for range 168
Stockmen believe profits depend on numbers 168
Permitting ranges to suffer to reduce expenses 169
Stocking on basis of better years 169
Restocking too soon after drought 169
Pressure on public range officials 169
Some agencies have not faced their conservation re-
sponsibility 170
Lack of realization of consequences 170
Overcoming excessive stocking not insurmountable 171
Rule-of-thumb management 173
Harmful practices evolved by rule-of -thumb 173
Too many animals on the range 173
Faulty distribution of livestock 174
Improper season of use injures the range 177
Poor balance between classes of animals and type of
range 178
The effect of burning on forage production 179
Combined effects of unsound rule-of- thumb practices 180
Reasons for development of rule-of -thumb practices 182
The lag in research and extension 185
Appraisal of range research and extension 185
Duration of the work 185
Character of investigations 186
Expenditures 187
Number of workers 188
Range extension 188
Examples of neglected unsolved problems of range restora-
tion and management 189
Problems of grazing capacity 189
The role of vegetation in watershed protection 190
Key forage plants 190
Artificial revegetation 191
Interplay of animal factors in their effect on range 191
Need for simple usable measures of range condition 192
Many other unsolved problems 192
The net result — a concluding appraisal 192
Financial handicaps 193
The relation of capital investments to profits and range
depletion 193
The relation of production costs to profits and range deple-
tion 197
Credit facilities and their relation to profits and range
depletion 201
The bankers' viewpoint 203
Marketing and its relationship to profits and range deple-
tion 205
Profits 208
Key financial problems 209
Markets 209
Credits 210
Erroneous financial philosophy 210
High land values 211
Unsuitable land policy 213
Introduction 213
The period of disposal 215
The homestead laws 216
Enlarged homestead acts 220
The grazing homestead law 221
Land script, mineral laws, and other acts — 226
Railroad and other internal improvement grants 226
Status of lands remaining in public ownership 230
Texas lands 230
State grants 231
Indian lands 234
Remaining public domain 236
TABLE OF CONTENTS XIII
IV. How and why— Continued. page
Unsuitable land policy — Continued.
Reasons for delay in adopting a constructive range-land
policy 236
The effects of past land policy 238
Effect on present range-land ownership 238
Effect on the range resource 245
The problems which arise from land ownership 246
Simplification of ownership pattern 246
Division into economic units 247
Taxation 247
Responsibility for restoration 248
Range conservation the exception 249
The national forests - 249
Establishment of the national forests 251
Aims and objectives in administration 253
Multiple use of resources 254
Administration of range use 255
Development and application of range management. __ 258
Obstacles and problems in range management 264
Range distribution policy 267
Net results of 30 years of range administration. _ 274
Indian lands 278
Indian range resources 278
Administration of Indian range 280
Special handicaps in administration 282
Wheeler-Howard Act 283
Problems 284
The grazing districts 285
Favorable features of the Grazing Act 286
Shortcomings of the Grazing Act 286
Conservation on privately owned range 294
West of the Great Plains 295
The Great Plains 297
The sandhills of Nebraska 299
Privately owned range lands in and adjacent to national
forests 299
Factors which have favored range conservation 300
V. Its social and economic function 301
In watershed protection
Watersheds of the virgin range 303
The flood and erosion menace of recent years 305
Floods 306
Erosion — 308
Causes of accelerated erosion and floods _ 314
Climate 314
Soils 315
Topography 315
Vegetation. 316
Ownership or control of land as a contributing factor in
accelerating run-off and erosion 325
The economic and social consequence of accelerated run-off
erosion 326
Soil fertility destroyed 327
Irrigation water supply and improvements threatened. 328
Costly floods _._-____ 335
Municipal watersheds - 335
Water power depends on continuous stream flow— .___ 336
Recreation and wildlife resources imperiled 336
"Black blizzards" of the plains spread destruction 336
Contrasting watershed and grazing values 337
The way out — restoration 338
As a home for wildlife 341
The wildlife problem 341
Wildlife a product of environment 341
How reduction in range area and its depletion reduced
wildlife 342
Restriction of area available for wildlife 343
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS
V. Its social and economic function — Continued.
As a home for wildlife — Continued
Range depletion 344
Other changes in habitat 346
Effect of environmental changes intensified by overutiliza-
tion of wildlife resource 348
Reduced wildlife presents an important and neglected
problem 349
Defects in theories adopted in wildlife conservation 351
Wildlife not regarded as a crop 351
Wildlife treated apart from environment 352
Wildlife refuges not universal solution 353
Transplanting of wildlife 354
Lack of basic knowledge of wildlife a handicap 355
Wildlife administration not handled as a biological
Sroblem 355
dlife management under legal pattern self-defeat-
ing 355
Vital importance of environment proved by national-
forest experiment 355
Major problems in wildlife management
In supplying areas for recreation . 363
The social need 363
Economic considerations 365
The elements of recreational value in the western range
States , __ 368
The lesson of the national parks and national forests
Future requirements
As an integrated pait of western agriculture 377
Introduction 377
The magnitude of western agriculture 378
Diverse patterns of western agriculture 379
Specialized crop farming 379
Crop farming and range livestock grazing 379
Regional characteristics of crop- and range-land agri-
culture.-.. 386
Dependent population 391
Metropolitan business centers. 393
Bonds between western agriculture and the Middle West
and South 393
Effects of maladjusted land uses and of range depletion 394
Dry farming or range husbandry 394
Other maladjustments 398
Effects of range depletion on integrated western agri-
culture 400
Range land submarginal for private ownership 411
Naturally low productive capacity of the range 411
Drought or other climatic hazards 412
Accessibility to market 412
Taxes and tax delinquency 413
Cost of restoration and rehabilitation 414
Use of public range concealed submarginality 414
Unsatisfactory social conditions 415
Other considerations 415
Greater security possible from balanced agriculture 415
The problem of integration of western agriculture 418
VI. Program...... _____ 419
The probable future use and ownership of range lands 421
The problems of use 421
The background 421
The problem of uneconomically cropped land 422
The problem of coordinating range use with the national
agricultural-adjustment and land-use programs 423
Other use adjustment problems 423
The problems of private ownership 424
Ownership pattern — causes, effects, and responsibility . , 424
Why should the public be interested? 425
The solution must be a joint undertaking of private and
public ownership - 427
TABLE OF CONTENTS XV
VI. Program — Continued.
The probable future use and ownership of range lands — Con.
The problem of private ownership — Continued Paff«
The possible means of public assistance to strengthen
private range-land ownership 427
Inadequacy of data prevents accurate determination of
size of problems 432
Estimated shifts in range lands submarginal for private
ownership ._ 433
The basis for estimating needed shifts from private to
public ownership 433
Rating of opportunity for private management in
different forage types 436
Prospective public acquisition 438
Estimated shifts in private range lands with high public
values 440
To restore and conserve watershed values 440
To protect wildlife 444
To round out national forests and grazing districts 445
The net area to be acquired 445
Change in usable range area 446
Problems of public ownership 447
The problem of unreserved Federal range lands 447
The problem of State-owned range lands 447
The problem of tax-reverted lands 447
Division of responsibility between States and Federal
Government in range-land ownership 448
The process of solution of ownership and use problems 449
The administration of public range lands 451
National forests and grazing-district lands 4 52
Multiple use of resources 453
Range management 455
Integration of public range lands with agriculture 457
Intermingled lands and isolated tracts 460
Boundary adjustments 462
Machinery of administration 462
Costs and returns 465
Unification of range administration in one department 467
Correlation in administration 467
Why the Forest Service is in the Department of Agri-
culture 467
Relation of Federal range to other agricultural re-
sources „ 468
Forest and range land management a function of agri-
culture 469
Functions of the Department of Agriculture 470
Functions of the Department of the Interior 471
Department of Agriculture best fitted to administer
Federal forest and range lands__. ... 471
Program for Indian range land 473
Range conservation 474
Machinery of range administration 475
Multiple use 475
Range improvements 476
Net results of program 477
State, county, and municipal range lands 477
Legislation needed 481
Private ownership — land and livestock 483
Present condition of private lands 483
What private and public agencies can do to stabilize private
ownership 483
Stewardship of land 484
Submarginal lands 485
Development of sound economic units 487
Inflationary land values 491
Range management, animal husbandry, and game
management. 492
Control of production ._ 495
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS
VI. Program — Continued.
Private ownership — land and livestock — Continued.
What private and public agencies can do to stabilize private
ownership — Continued.
Markets 496
Credits 496
Taxation 497
Research and extension 498
Improving rural social and economic conditions 498
The management of range lands 501
A program for domestic livestock production 503
Systems of grazing 503
Range rehabilitation 504
Pests, diseases, and poisonous plant eradication 506
Grazing capacity 507
Proper season of use 510
Class of stock 511
Distribution of stock 511
Need for management plans 513
Potential contribution from the range 514
A program for watershed protection 515
Restoration during grazing use usually sufficient 515
Artificial erosion control needed in some cases 516
Responsibility for watershed protection 517
A program for wildlife 518
Jurisdictional problems 519
Refuges and santuaries 519
A program for recreation 521
A program for forest ranges 522
Additional information — A basic need 522
Research and extension program 523
Why range research and extension? 523
Major lines of research required 524
Range management 524
Artificial revegetation 52 7
Watershed management 528
Range economics 529
Wildlife 529
Animal husbandry 530
Entomology 530
Coordinated research 530
Extension 531
Responsibility for and cost of research and extension re-
quired 531
Present expenditures 532
Proposed expenditures 533
Legislation and costs 535
Problems requiring Federal legislative action 535
Problems affecting public domain and grazing districts.- 535
Problems of transferring private lands to Federal
ownership 538
Simplification of boundary changes 541
Problems in Federal assistance to private owners 542
The problem of managing wildlife on Federal lands 544
Problems requiring State legislative action 544
The joint problem of State and Federal Governments to
work cooperatively _ 548
Costs __ __ 548
The job on Federal lands 549
The job on State and county lands 552
The job on private lands 553
Research and extension 554
Literature cited 557
Appendix 567
Southern forest ranges 567
Alaska 581
Range types 599
Range species referred to in the report 600
Index.. 605
I. THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTION
A RESUME
By EAKLB H. CLAPP, Associate Chief, Forest Service
The western range has never been fully and clearly recognized
as one of our great natural resources along with forests, soil, wildlife,
coal, oil, iron, and other minerals.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the intrinsic value and im-
portance of the range resource to the West and to the entire country
has been seriously underestimated or entirely overlooked. Neither
is it surprising that the general public, many conservationists, and
even many western stockmen have no real appreciation of the ex-
tent to which the range has been neglected and abused, what the
consequences have been, and how these consequences have already
affected and will in the future continue to affect human welfare.
Outside of the range country the general public and even many
conservationists have gained much of what they know from fiction.
They have a hazy, distorted picture of the glamour of the cattle
country, of something far removed, unique, and picturesque which
they recognize as having colored all western thought and life.
The western stockman has been too close and too much a part of
all that has happened fully to grasp results, trends, and causes.
The changes in the resource, ordinarily deterioration, have often been
too insidious and too obscure to divert attention from what seemed
to be the immediate and compelling problems of livelihood under
strenuous competition which all too often in the early days became
open warfare. If he has known and cared, he has often been the
victim of circumstances over which, regardless of how he struggled,
he had little control. Or he has coupled his recognition with an
incorrigible optimism which counted on plentiful rains in the season
to come, or a turn in the market to make everything right in his
livestock business and also with the range itself.
Under such cirumstances only the inspired leadership which has
stirred the public to action on some other resources could have been
effective, and such leadership has been conspicuously absent.
Piecemeal attacks on the range problem have been made in the
past, but this report has been prepared in the belief that only a com-
prehensive attack on the entire range problem will suffice. Many
conditions, forces, and problems are common to the entire western
range country. Only through consideration of the whole is it possi-
able to obtain a background and a grasp which will permit sound
and lasting remedial action.1
1 The report Is based on a large amount of information already available in the Forest
Service, together with that which could be obtained readily from State, Federal, and
other agencies, and, where time permitted, by special surveys. Where exact informa-
tion was not available the best approximations possible under the circumstances have
been made. While great accuracy cannot be claimed for these it is believed that the
findings are substantially correct.
64946—36 2 1
THE WESTERN RANGE
Furthermore, such consideration must begin with the forage and
soil which constitute the range resource itself, take into account
their original and present condition, and how they have been and
should be used. It should extend into the now closely related crop
agriculture and devote at least passing notice to dependent or closely
related services and activities. It must, however, have human beings
and their permanent welfare as its chief concern and end objective.
Obviously no attempt could be made to cover all American agri-
culture of which western range and crop lands are a part. As the
broader problems of American agriculture are worked out, the solu-
tions will undoubtedly reflect into and modify in greater or less
degree the conclusions reached in this survey.
The western range is largely open and unfenced, with control of
stock by herding; where fenced, relatively large units are enclosed.
bT-
>~ — -J. ,1
) <
/ • !
hi
r— J-X.
7 !
S I
^ Y s-
J \~~-
"i i i
The Range Area
^°\ t;^>^"^^^ L \
\ jf 'Boundary of X {
X^ Range Territory \j
FIGURE 1.— THE RANGE AREA.
The 728 million-acre range area discussed in this report, roughly three-fourths of the
land area west of an irregular line extending south through the Dakotas to Mexico
and nearly 40 percent of the total land area of the United States, is an indication of
the magnitude of the range problem.
It supports with few exceptions only native grasses and other forage
plants, is never fertilized or cultivated, and can in the main be
restored and maintained only through control of grazing. It con-
sists almost exclusively of lands which, because of relatively meager
precipitation or other adverse climatic conditions, or rough topog-
raphy, or the lack of water for irrigation, cannot successfully be
used for any other form of agriculture.
In contrast, the improved pastures of the East and Middle West
receive an abundant precipitation, are ordinarily fenced, utilize
introduced forage species, follow cultivation for other crops, are
often fertilized to increase productivity, and are renewed following
deterioration.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 6
The range area covered in this report lies to the west of an irregular
north and south line which cuts through the Dakotas, Nebraska,
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (fig. 1). The range area aggregates
some 728 million acres out of a total land area of 975 million acres.
Discussions of the southern and Alaskan ranges are included in the
appendix.
The Forest Service is charged with the responsibility for the
administration of some 88 million acres of grazable land within
the western national forests, of which 94 percent is available for
livestock. The national forest ranges are a much more important
link in the western range problem than their acreage alone indicates.
The impact upon their administration of a group of increasingly
serious problems growing out of other range lands in the public
domain, in the grazing districts now being formed under the provi-
sions of the Taylor Grazing Act, and in private and in State or other
public ownerships, as well as problems in the closely related crop
agriculture, has forced the survey which has resulted in this report.
Such action has been essential in order to safeguard the fundamental
conservation principles which underlie national forest administra-
tion and even the integrity of the national forests themselves.
MAJOR FINDINGS
There is perhaps no darker chapter nor greater tragedy in the his-
tory of land occupancy and use in the United States than the story
of the western range. First it was "the Great American Desert", a
vast and trackless waste, a barrier to the gold fields. Unexpectedly
and almost overnight it became the potential source of great wealth
from livestock grazing. And therein lies the key to the story. All
of the major findings which constitute the first part of this discus-
sion have their origin in the effort to capitalize this wealth and
convert it to human use.
SERIOUS RANGE DEPLETION PRACTICALLY UNIVERSAL
The major finding of this report — at once the most obvious and
obscure — is range depletion so nearly universal under all conditions
of climate, topography, and ownership that the exceptions serve
only to prove the rule.
The existing range area has been depleted no less than 52 percent
from its virgin condition, using depletion in the sense of reduction
in grazing capacity for domestic livestock. Practically this means
that a range once capable of supporting 22.5 million animal units 2
can now carry only 10.8 million.
On nearly 55 percent of the entire range area, forage values have
been reduced by more than half.
2 1 animal unit as used in the report is 1 cow, horse, or mule, or 5 sheep, goats, or
swine.
THE WESTERN KANGE
Of the four classes used in evaluating the degree of depletion, ma-
terial (26-50 percent) and severe (51-75 percent) are most extensive,
as shown by fig. 2 and table 3, each covering more than one-third of
the total range area. Extreme (76-100 percent) covers a little more
than 15 percent, and moderate (0-25 percent) somewhat less.
Boundary of
Range Territory
1
DEPLETION
;•:•] Moderate Illllll
Material R£££l Extreme
300
FIGURE 2.— RANGE DEPLETION CLASSES.
Of the depletion classes, material (26-50 percent) and severe (51-75 percent) cover
more than seven-tenths of the entire range area. Nearly 120 million acres is in the
extreme (76-100 percent) depletion class, and of the 95 million acres in the moderate
(0-25 percent) depletion class probably not more than half is in a thoroughly satis-
factory condition.
The depletion consists of the disappearance largely or altogether
from many parts of the range of such valuable forage plants as the
bluebunch wheatgrass, the giant wild-rye, ricegrass, dropseed, saca-
ton, and California oatgrass. It consists of the replacement of
palatable and nutritious plants such as prairie beardgrass and sand-
THE MAJOE BANGE PKOBLEMS
grass by the unpalatable sand sagebrush and yucca, wild-rye by
greasewood, winterfat by shadscale and rabbitbrush. It consists
also of the replacement of perennial grasses by much less nutritious
annual grasses and weeds. It consists of the invasion of foreign
plants, such as the worthless star thistle in California, the nearly
worthless Russian thistle now found everywhere, the poisonous Kla-
math weed, and only a few of limited value, such as cheatgrass for
Southern
Desert Shrub
Salt-Desert
Shrub
Pinon-Juniper
Woodland-
Chaparral _
Open Forests
200
150 100 50
MILLION ACRES
25 50
PERCENT
FIGURE 3.— AREA AND DEPLETION OP THE RANGE TYPES.
All range types except two are depleted by half or more. Of the two, tall grass is small
in area and reflects especially favorable conditions, and the open forest benefits from a
large area under national forest management.
only a few weeks each year, and the alfileria of southern Arizona
and California, for a few weeks in wet years.
Still further, depletion consists of marked reduction in density of
the better forage plants, with the perennial gramas and fescues as
an example. The ordinarily desirable thickening of forests by re-
production and the expansion of brush areas has to some extent also
reduced the space for forage plants.
What is true of the range as a whole is also true of the 10 broad
types (figs. 25, 30, and 34) into which it has been divided for the
purposes of this report, as shown in table 1 and figure 3.
6
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 1. — Area of range types ana forage depletion
Types
Areas
Depletion
Tall grass
1,000 acres
18, 513
Percent
21
Short grass
198,092
49
Pacific bunchgrass .. .
42,534
51
Semidesert grass
89, 274
55
Sagebrush grass
96 528
67
Southern desert shrub _--.-. ________ .. _ _
26, 896
62
Salt-desert shrub
40, 858
71
Pinon-juniper
76,728
60
Woodland-chaparral _ _
13,406
50
Open forest
126 367
33
Total
i 728, 196
52
Does not include 1,217,000 acres in national parks.
The salt-desert shrub type, reduced by 71 percent, and the tall
grass, by 21 percent, constitute the extremes. Furthermore, nearly
three-fourths of the tall-grass type is in the moderate depletion
class, and nine-tenths of the area of the salt-desert shrub is in the
Public Domain &
Grazing Districts
300 200 100
MILLION ACRES
FIGURE 4.— ABBA AND DEPLETION BY OWNERSHIPS.
Ranges of all ownerships and forms of control except the national forests have been
depleted by half or more. The national forests 30 years ago were probably in even
worse condition than the public domain then was because of the comparative abundance
of water on the national forests and of the general shortage of summer range.
severe- and extreme-depletion classes. The salt-desert shrub, sage-
brush grass, southern-desert shrub, and piiion- juniper ranges now
rate about a third of the virgin range.
The reductions in productivity are all the more staggering
because of the magnitude of the areas involved.
Ownership, first nearly all Federal, has become more than half
private (table 2 and fig. 4).
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 7
TABLE 2. — Range areas and depletion by ownerships
Ownership or control
Range area
Deple-
tion
Area avail-
able for
range use
Federal:
/, 000 acres
87, 954
127, 792
48, 391
22, 997
65, 516
375, 546
Percent
12
17
7
3
9
52
Percent
30
67
51
63
49
51
/,000 acres
82,538
127, 792
48,391
21,599
65, 084
375, 546
Public domain grazing districts - --
Other - -
Private - -- -
Total ---
728, 196
100
52
720, 950
As might be expected, both ownership, and the form of control
within ownership, have had a marked influence on depletion. The
UPGRADE OR UNCHANGED
National Forests-
Public Domain and
Grazing Districts..
State and County-
All Ownerships
75 50 25 0 25 50 75
TOTAL AREA IN OWNERSHIP (PERCENT)
FIGUKB 5.— DEPLETION TRENDS OF THE LAST 30 YEARS.
The contrast between the national forests and other forms of ownership or control is in
essence a contrast between an attempt at range conservation and practically unre-
stricted use.
Federal public domain, a no man's land without management prior
to the creation of the grazing districts, is in the worst condition, with
depletion of 67 percent. Very surprisingly, fee-simple private own-
ership has been so little of an incentive to the preservation of the
range resource that depletion stands at 51 percent. Indian, State,
and county holdings have fared no better than private lands. Na-
tional-forest ranges make the best showing, but despite 30 years'
management are still 30 percent below virgin conditions.
Whether range conditions are on the up or down grade may be
even more significant than the extent of present depletion. Here
also the public domain has the blackest record, with nearly 95 per-
cent of the total area depreciating during the last 30 years and only
2 percent improving (fig. 5). Over three-fourths of the
8
THE WESTERN KANGE
forest range has improved during the same period and only 5 per-
cent has declined. For all other ownerships, largely private lands,
from 75 to 88 percent have declined and 7 to 10 percent improved
in value. Of all classes of ownership and forms of control only
the national forests show any appreciable gain in range conditions.
In a nutshell, the white man's toll of the western range for 50
years, or for less than 100 at the outside, is reduced grazing capacity
of more than half. Still further, 76 percent of the entire range has
declined appreciably during the last 30 years and only 16 percent
has improved (fig. 6).
The virgin range was characterized by wide differences in its vege-
tation because of marked climatic, soil, topographic, and other varia-
tions to be expected in an area of such size. The vegetation ranged
all the way from the dense sod of the tall-grass prairies with grass
under the most favorable conditions as high as a horse's back, to the
TREND
RANGE AREA
Upgrade __
Stationary.
Downgrade.
200
MILLION ACRES
400
600
FIGURE 6.— THIRTY-YEAR TRENDS IN RANGE CONDITION.
Range resource history of the last 30 years may be summed up in continuing depletion
of more than three-fourths of the entire area, but improvement on less than one-sixth.
low, sparse, scattered clumps of the southern desert shrub. But
nearly all ranges produced an abundance of palatable and nutritious
plants suitable for pasturage, many of which held their values in
curing on the stem.
Before white settlement, the range was used only by game, the
great numbers of which are attested by the reports of all the early
explorers. Despite these numbers and climatic cycles, and drought
periods which were undoubtedly as severe as any of recent years, the
range did maintain itself, except for natural variation and for local-
ized and temporary overgrazing, and would have continued to dp so
if the white man had not upset its natural and fairly stable equilib-
rium. Truly, man has shown less wisdom and vision in the use of
the range resource than did uncontrolled nature. His greatest
achievement seems to have been the removal of the natural checks
and balances which had maintained the virgin range over thousands
of years.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 9
DEPLETION RESULTED FROM A FEW OUTSTANDING CAUSES
FROM THE TRADITIONAL AMERICAN ATTITUDE
A second major finding is a clarification of the causes of the
deterioration and destruction of the range. Outstanding among the
causes has been the traditional American attitude toward all natural
resources. The exuberance of the American spirit has manifested
itself, among other ways, in the lavish use of all the great natural
resources with which the United States has been so richly endowed.
The philosophy of inexhaustibility and its corollary that no pro-
vision need be made for either wise use or perpetuation has been
almost universal, and as a result all have been wasted or destroyed
with all the resourcefulness and ingenuity of a virile people. Other
peoples have destroyed their natural resources but none have shown
greater efficiency in the process. Like most other resources, the
range seemed limitless. For years it was free and an enormous area
still is. To a greater or less extent livestock grazing was once re-
garded as a transitional phase of land use which would lead to a
more intensive development, and this minimized the need for care
of the resource. To the western stockman livestock production has
been very largely a business in which for one reason or another
profit has been the compelling motive. Immediate profit loomed
so large that care and restraint seemed far-fetched and visionary.
For such reasons as these the conservation of the forage and soil
resource has been largely in the background. It should be recog-
nized that most of the other causes of depletion outlined hereafter
go back fundamentally to this traditional attitude.
FROM RULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT
The American immigrant brought with him a traditional knowl-
edge of crop agriculture worked out over many centuries under com-
parable European conditions. The western pioneer frequently had
the background of adaptations of this knowledge to American con-
ditions following years of trial in the East and Middle West.
To the western pioneer, however, the grazing of the western range
was an entirely new form of agriculture. Its use by two or three
generations of stockmen has afforded far too short a time to develop
satisfactory management by large-scale trial and error. The com-
plex biological relationships between plants themselves, between
plants, climate, and soils, and between forage and grazing animals
were beyond the ken of the range user.
Despite this, however, the resourceful and self-reliant stockman
felt absolute confidence in his own ability to meet all requirements,
and he neither asked for nor, except in a minor degree, received
the benefits of research into range-management problems, the only
other means of acquiring the necessary information. Research in
consequence has been meager, has among Federal agencies been
concentrated largely in three bureaus of the Department of Agri-
culture, has at the State agricultural experiment stations dealt
largely with animal husbandry and range economics, and has in
general lagged far behind requirements.
In the complex problem which we are more and more recognizing
range use to be, and without the benefits of technical knowledge, the
stockman has inevitably gone seriously wrong.
10
THE WESTERN RANGE
Lacking a sound basis for judging grazing capacity he has over-
stocked the range almost from the start. How else explain the
depletion of the range as a whole by more than half? Climate is the
only other possible explanation, and there is more evidence that the
western climate has not changed than that it has. Furthermore,
there are many specific examples of well-managed ranges on which
forage conditions have improved, while adjacent overstocked ranges
with identical climate have deteriorated.
After taking into account supplemental feeds and irrigated pas-
tures, which supported 17 percent of the range livestock in 1900 and
38 percent in 1935, the number on range lands reached peaks of
approximately 19.9 and 20.7 million animal units in 1900 and 1920,
respectively. Since 1920 there has been a declining tendency, with a
sharp drop to about 17.3 million animal units in 1935, a reduction of
about 17 percent since 1920.
The range portion of the Plains States, the 11 far Western States
as a group, and most of them separately, show similar downward
trends from different peak years.
LIVESTOCK NOW ON RANGE
PRESENT GRAZING CAPACITY
6 12
MILLION ANIMAL UNITS
FIGURE 7.— EXCESSIVE STOCKING
Excessive stocking has been one of the prime factors in range depletion, and until about
6.5 million animal units of surplus stock are removed the range will continue on the
downgrade.
The downward trends do not in themselves tell the whole story,
because many herds are being carried on a bare maintenance basis by
subsisting chiefly on low-value plants. Overgrazing for an extended
period destroys the choicest range species first, and the livestock turn
progressively to the poorer and poorer plants which, although grazed,
are not as nutritious as the original vegetation. Accordingly the
full extent of damage to the range often has not been fully reflected
in decreased grazing capacity. Overgrazing has left its earmarks
in the scarcity of the choicest range plants and the predominance of
low-value and worthless plants, in dead or partly dead stumps or
stubby branches of shrubs, in noticeable damage to tree reproduction,
and in erosion and barren soil. Such earmarks are now conspicuous
on several hundred million acres of range lands and particularly
on those depleted in excess of 50 percent.
If any other evidence of excessive stocking is required it is neces-
sary only to compare the 17.3 million animal units dependent on the
range in 1935 with the estimated grazing capacity of 10.8 million
animal units (fig. 7). In other words, it would be necessary to
THE MA JOE RANGE PROBLEMS 11
reduce present stocking by nearly 38 percent to meet the actual graz-
ing capacity. Even humid pastures could not stand up under such
abuse; it is far too much to expect of semiarid ranges.
But the evidence of overstocking does not stop even here. Aver-
age annual death losses on overstocked and overgrazed ranges of
as much as 9 percent among sheep and 5 to 7 percent among cattle
are practically double the losses under conservative grazing and
good feed. Calf crops on overstocked, overgrazed ranges are often
only a half or two-thirds of what they are under good conditions.
Other specific evidence, historical and otherwise, of overstocking
and depletion, could be multiplied almost indefinitely.
And overstocking is only one, and the most serious, of the de-
fective rule-of-thumb forms of management which have hastened
and accentuated depletion. Poor distribution of livestock, concen-
tration on key areas such as mountain meadows and around water-
ing places, grazing at the wrong time of year, faulty balance between
classes of animals and type of range, grazing two or more classes
on ranges already overstocked with one, have contributed in varying
degree and very largely in the aggregate.
When the stockman realized what rule-of-thumb practices were
doing to the range, he often was, or thought he was, under the
compulsion of other causes which stayed his hand.
FROM AN UNSOUND LAND POLICY
A national land policy unsuited to the semiarid and mountain
grazing lands of the West has been still another major cause in the
depletion of the range forage. This policy has grown out of such
factors as :
1. Belief in universal private ownership of land and the attempt
to pass as much land as possible to private ownership regardless of
its character.
2. In this attempt, the practically unmodified application to the
radically different semiarid West of land laws suited to the humid
East and Middle West.
3. The failure to classify land as a basis for alienation according
to the economic suitablility for private ownership or to its highest
form of use.
4. The character of the interpretation and administration of the
land laws.
The first alienation to private ownership occurred in the Southwest
before American acquisition, as Spanish and Mexican land grants,
and amounted to more than 45 million acres. These grants were
based on the philosophy of a landed aristocracy rather than that of
democratic equality, which was one fundamental basis of American
land disposal. Although averaging several thousand acres each,
they have not generally resulted in good range management and
are depleted almost as badly as the surrounding lands.
Homesteading in the West dates back largely to the homestead
law of 1862. More liberal amendments and new laws have included
the enlarged homestead law of 1909, the Kinkaid Act of 1904, and
finally the stockraising homestead law of 1916.
Neither the maximum of 640 acres available under the stockraising
law nor the 160 acres under the original Homestead Act offered the
12 THE WESTERN KANGE
remotest possibility of supporting a family under range use. The
attempt at classification, made under the Stockraising Act, finally
listed practically everything short of absolute desert. The inef-
fectiveness of the classification has been paftly responsible for
abandonment before the passage of title of some 28 million acres
out of the 68 million acres entered. Under the Homestead Acts up
to 1935, 1.4 million entries were made for nearly 240 million acres,
a substantial part of which was in the range country and more than
half of the western homestead area was range land.
Railroad and wagon-road grants, totaling more than 101 million
acres of odd-numbered sections of range and other lands, checker-
boarded wide strips across the West and further complicated range
use and contributed to depletion. The railroad land policy has
been to cash in as fast as possible by sale, and about 65 million
acres of range land, mostly in small tracts, has gone into other
private ownership, leaving more than 19 million acres of the poorest
grant land unsold, most of it range, and in the original checkerboard
pattern. For this their policy has generally been to get the maxi-
mum current revenue through leasing. Most of the railroads have
recently reversed this policy, however, and are working toward some
stable and orderly use of the range resource which they still retain.
Texas retained its public lands and has based its land-disposal
policy on that of the Federal Government, except that considerably
larger areas have gone to single owners. Depletion has, however,
been much the same as on smaller private holdings.
Federal grants to the other western States were for common
schools, institutions, and internal improvements. Through selection
under institutional grants and by use of the various lieu-selection
laws there has been considerable consolidation. Most State land
was, however, in scattered sections. It has been sold where the legal
price could be obtained, and the remaining area leased for the maxi-
mum current revenue. These lands have been handled by agencies
whose primary function was disposal and revenue collection, and in
no instance by agricultural agencies. A total of about 33 million
acres has gone into private ownership. Since stockmen have fol-
lowed their own inclinations in the handling of leased State lands,
the extent of depletion is practically identical with that on lands
in private ownership.
The 149.4 million acres of range land available for grazing left
in the public domain, grazing districts, and other withdrawals is
the poorest west of the Mississippi. It is the land which for its
surface rights no one would take as a gift or purchase under the
homestead or other land laws. Much of it is badly scattered. Open
without restriction or restraint to all or to any who could take or
hold, no other class of range land has suffered more seriously. Along
with nearly three-fourths of the forage has often gone the top sou
on which future recovery must depend.
The sum total of the effects of past land policy on range land has
been:
1. A crazy-quilt ownership pattern, such as that shown in figures
63 and 64, made up of several hundred thousand small farm or
ranch units, widely scattered State holdings and railroad lands,
the foreclosures of insurance and investment companies, banks, etc.,
isolated Federal public domain tracts, and State and county tax-
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 13
delinquent lands — all of this almost impossible to handle effectively
because of size or surrounding holdings and leading inevitably to
overgrazing, depletion, and social and economic instability of the
dependent population.
2. The passage to private ownership of an enormous area of land,
the size of which is not yet accurately known, that is either sub-
marginal even for range use by private operators because of low
productivity, etc., or has high public values such as watershed pro-
tection which are difficult or impossible for private owners to
maintain.
3. The passage to private ownership and encouragement of dry
and other farming of some 50 million acres of relatively good range
land that is submarginal for crops. Nearly 25 million acres have
already been abandoned for cultivation and at least 11 million acres
additional constitute acute problem areas. On all of this area the
range has been destroyed and will be of little use for years to come
unless reseeded.
4. The passage to private ownership of key areas, such as water
holes, giving control of very much larger areas of public land, and
as spring range of which there is a serious shortage.
5. Tax delinquency on the ranges submarginal for private owner-
ship, and delinquency on and abandonment of the dry-farming areas
which the meager data available indicates to be excessive.
6. Depletion so serious that decades of time and enormous ex-
penditures will be required for restoration, not only of the range
which has passed to private ownership but also of that outside of
the national forests which has remained in public ownership.
Among the favorable features of Federal-land policy from the
standpoint of range depletion has been the creation of the national
forests, and the belated provision for a better handling of the Indian
lands and a part of the public domain.
FROM FINANCIAL HANDICAPS
One of the greatest financial handicaps of the western stockman
in comparison with his middle-western competitor is a serious freight
and marketing differential. On an 1,100-pound steer, for example,
Illinois has an advantage in the Chicago market over Idaho of
nearly $8.50, and over Nebraska of about $2.85 (fig. 8). The out-
standing competitive opportunity which the western stockman has
to offset this handicap is cheap feed from natural ranges. On the
average range feed worth $1 or less will support an animal satisfac-
torily as long as hay or other supplemental feed costing $5 to $10
or even more (fig. 9).
Instead of maintaining fully this natural advantage of cheap
range feed, however, the western stockman has ordinarily followed
one, or usually more, of three other courses which have actually
increased his handicap. In all of these he has tried to carry too
many stock. Hoping to reduce costs of production he has over-
grazed and destroyed his cheap range feed. He has bought crop
lands and grown and used excessive amounts of high-cost hay and
other supplemental feeds. He has purchased range lands often un-
der competitive conditions which have inflated values, increased his
capital investments, and hence the costs of production.
14
THE WESTERN RANGE
The investment in land in the livestock industry is so high in many
cases that the livestock or converting part of the enterprise cannot
earn a profit. Overcapitalization in land supplemented by the leas-
ing of land in competition, the purchase or growing of relatively
costly supplemental feed, and exorbitant interest on borrowed funds
have all contributed to high production costs. In Montana, for
example, the ratio of investment in land, improvements, etc., to the
ewe value per head was 0.5 to 1 in 1890, but had increased to 4.7 to
1 in 1932. In an attempt to restore the balance between land and
herd investments and to reduce production costs, stockmen have
ordinarily increased their herds and overstocked and depleted their
ranges.
Unfavorable credit facilities have added to the financial difficul-
ties of the livestock producer. Boom credit has been so easy that it
has almost been forced on him and has contributed to overexpansion
in both land and herds. During depressions when he has most
needed credit it was difficult or impossible to obtain, and he has had
to dump stock on glutted markets or frequently to hold them on
ranges already seriously overstocked.
Illinois
Nebraska__
Idaho_-
FlGURE 8.— THE MARKETING DIFFERENTIAL.
Marketing costs, mainly freight, are one of the most serious financial handicaps of nearly
all the range country. Idaho's handicap over Illinois in the Chicago market of nearly
$8.50 on an 1,100-pound steer, can be met successfully only by some decided compensa-
tory advantage.
Beyond this, loans have been predicated almost entirely on live-
stock as the basic resource without taking into account the range
upon which they fed, and this again has contributed to overstocking
and range deterioration. Short-term loans at interest rates often as
high as 91/2 or 10 percent have increased costs, reduced profits, and
added to the hazards of the enterprise and its disregard of the basic
range.
Widely fluctuating markets from year to year and almost from
week to week, have capped the climax of their financial difficulties.
Depressed and glutted markets in particular have helped to keep
stock on the range where already numbers were far in excess of
what it could support.
Accordingly the financial and market set-up of the stockman has
always been difficult and sometimes almost impossible. That this
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS
15
situation has always borne hardest on the holder of land submarg-
inal for private ownership, the user of badly depleted range, and the
unit which was uneconomic because it was too large or too small,
or was poorly balanced between range and crop land, and between
land and herd, requires no proof.
With the financial cards stacked against him to a greater or less
extent the range user has made the fatal mistake of trying to break
even by crowding more stock on the range. As a result the range
deteriorated still more rapidly and this in turn accentuated his
financial handicap.
In this involved and ordinarily adverse situation the stockman
has not been entirely a free agent. His course of action may not
have been sufficiently aggressive and constructive and he undoubted-
ly failed to appreciate or may have seriously underestimated the
bearing of it all on his basic resource and what the end result would
be. However, in part at least, he has been the victim of circum-
stances far beyond his own control.
FIGURE 9.— CHEAP RANGE FEED THE ANSWER.
Cheap range feed, the one best answer to the marketing differential, has unfortunately
been largely lost under unrestricted grazing, practically universal depletion, and ex-
cessive use of the several times more expensive supplemental feeds.
FROM THE CLIMATE
Last, but not least, among the primary causes of depletion is the
climate.
Precipitation in the western range country averages less than 15
inches, or only about one-third that of the East. Excepting the
higher mountain areas, it varies from about 15 inches in the short-
grass plains to less than 5 inches in the southern-desert shrub type
of the Mohave-Gila Desert of the Southwest.
For single years or, often, for groups of years it falls below the
average. An extreme of 2 to 4 years out of 10 are drought years
over much of the Southwest. Severe droughts often lasting several
years have occurred over much of the West in every decade since
1880.
16 THE WESTERN RANGE
The volume of range forage produced depends upon climate and
especially upon the amount of precipitation. At the extreme, the
reduction in forage production in very dry as compared with favor-
able years may reach over 90 percent in the semidesert grass and
southern desert shrub types in New Mexico and Arizona. Over
large areas the fluctuation may be as much as 80 percent in succes-
sive years. Under even the most favorable climatic conditions the
recovery in production is not complete in a single year, and under-
average conditions probably requires from 3 to 5 years. Under
adverse conditions it requires still longer.
Neither the climate nor the amount of precipitation can be con-
trolled by man, but the numbers of stock on the range can. The
almost universal failure to vary the numbers of stock with such fluc-
tuations in the amount of forage produced, or to stock below pro-
duction in average years, has been one of the primary causes of
depletion. For example, from 3 to 10 times as many valuable forage
plants died during the 1931-35 drought on heavily grazed as on
adjoining lightly grazed areas in western Utah and southwestern
Wyoming. The records show steadily increasing numbers of live-
stock on the range over entire States during periods of declining
precipitation and hence decreasing forage stand, until the severity
of the drought and the scarcity of the feed compelled drastic reduc-
tions in numbers by forced sales or by high starvation losses. Such
catastrophes have occurred in most Western States during every
severe drought period of the last 50 years, including that of 1934,
when the distress was alleviated only by Federal livestock pur-
chases which reached the staggering total of more than 11 million
head of cattle, sheep, and goats, at a cost exceeding $100,000,000.
This was more than one-sixth of the total number of beef cattle,
sheep, and goats in the 17 Western States on January 1, 1934.
RANGE USE AN INTEGRAL PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
The growing of domestic livestock on open ranges, their produc-
tion on fenced pastures, and the production of farm products on cul-
tivated land are merely different phases of agriculture. But the ex-
tent to which range use is related to and, in fact, an integral part of
western agriculture is another major finding of this report.
Range use by domestic livestock in the West probably began in
New Mexico about 20 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
It was not until nearly 280 years later, with the cattle boom of the
eighties, that heavy use over large territories became a major factor
in range depletion. Cattle and sheep had increased to an early peak
in California about 1875. From 1870 to 1880 all the other Western
and, especially, the Plains States showed exceedingly rapid increases
in number of cattle. Texas chiefly, with more than 4.5 million cattle
during the seventies, supplied the other Plains States. Sheep spread
rapidly over the western ranges between 1890 and 1910.
Irrigated crops as an adjunct to range use were grown along the
Rio Grande from about 1700 on. Even in the 1850's during the early
stages of the range livestock industry, which at first was almost
wholly pastoral, crop farming began in California and Utah. The
first homestead patent was granted in 1869 in Nebraska. The cut-
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 17
ting of native hay began in the seventies. In parts of Idaho range
livestock grazing proved very difficult until crop agriculture pro-
duced the feed needed to carry stock through the winter.
Beginning in 1910 large irrigation projects have been an impor-
tant factor in furnishing supplemental feed and concentrates for
feeding and fattening range livestock. The 242,908 farm units and
93,797,000 acres of land in farms in the 11 far Western States in
1900 had by 1930 more than doubled in number of units and in
acreage.
In sum, grazing, which at the beginning was largely an inde-
pendent and pastoral enterprise, and which after a long, slow start
expanded ahead of and more rapidly than crop agriculture, has now
become vitally dependent upon crop production. The latter also
started early but has grown more slowly, and reached large propor-
tions several decades later.
The combined range and crop agriculture now constitutes a sub-
stantial part of the total wealth of the West. The 1930 census values
western farm lands and buildings, and farm and range livestock,
machinery, etc. (including privately owned range and excluding irri-
gation improvements), at more than 12.9 billion dollars, or 23 per-
cent of the comparable total for the United States. Western crop
products for the same year were worth over 1.5 billion dollars and
livestock products nearly 480 million dollars. In addition to beef
and mutton, hides, etc., 'the range territory produced 75 percent of
the 1930 national production of wool and mohair, or more than 276
million pounds, valued at more than 82 million dollars.
Except for the highly specialized crop farming, mostly on irri-
gated land, and producing such products as fruits and nuts, the
agriculture of the West is primarily an integration of range live-
stock grazing and crop farming.
Out of several hundred thousand separate enterprises no two per-
haps are quite alike. They vary from the one extreme of operations
consisting entirely of range lands used for livestock production, which
purchase from crop farmers the supplemental and fattening feeds
they use, to the other extreme of units devoted exclusively to crop
farming for the production of grain or other cash crops, where the
direct tie with the range is confined to sales of supplemental feed
or the leasing of irrigated pasture. In between are innumerable
combinations and variations of range lands used for livestock grazing
and crop lands used to provide supplemental feed for range livestock
and for many different kinds of cash crops.
Land tenure differs fully as much, from the rapidly vanishing
tramp sheepman who owns no range and leases little, to the baronial
operator who owns outright the range and crop lands which support
his stock throughout the year. In size, ownership may be as small
as 5 or 10 acres of crop land, or as large as the 500,000-acre ranch,
largely range, but with some crop land.
Cattle, sheep, horses, and other livestock and the meat, wool, and
other materials of which they are the source, are clearly, therefore,
the products of range lands only in part. The diversified products
of croplands — various cereals, corn, sugar beets, cotton, flax, sor-
ghums, hay, pasturage, etc. — return cash income only in part.
Whether sold or used directly in feeding they now constitute no less
64946—36 3
18
THE WESTEKN KANGE
than 35 percent of the feed required for western range livestock
(fig. 10).
Each major region of the West has its distinctive agricultural pat-
tern and form of integration of range and croplands, dominated
mainly by climate and topography, but partly also by economic con-
ditions and tradition. These are described in detail in the report
and repetition here would only serve to illustrate still further the tie
between range and cropland use which is already apparent.
Western agriculture is the direct source of livelihood for over 1
million farm and ranch families, the principal support for another
million families in rural towns, and the indirect support for a large
part of the remaining population of the West. Its contributions
extend from the farms and ranches through the small and exclusively
agricultural communities to the larger supply towns and the metro-
LIVESTOCK ON
OTHER FEED
LIVESTOCK ON RANGE
FIGURE 10.— INCREASING INTEGRATION OF RANGE AND CROP AGRICULTURE
A threefold 45-year increase in the percentage of numbers of livestock on supplemental
feeds and irrigated pastures is a salient point in the increasing integration of western
range and cropland agriculture.
politan centers. The grocer, druggist, miner, mechanic, lumberman,
and banker, the stockyards, the railroads, and other transportation
services, in fact every western activity which forms a part of the
complex, interrelated, interdependent structure of modern civiliza-
tion has its stake in a permanently prosperous and stable agriculture.
The somewhat arbitrary eastern boundary of the range country is
no limitation, however, on the tie of its agriculture with the agricul-
tural and other industries and activities of the remainder of the
United States. The western ranges furnish feeder and stocker cattle
in large numbers to the Midwest, thereby offering the opportunity
for diversification of farm products and for turning slack time into
cash. Both the Midwest and the South sell large quantities of
shelled corn, other grains, and cottonseed meal and cake to the West.
The range country and the Middle West compete in supplying the
eastern consumer with various livestock products. And these are
only a few obvious forms of the tie between the West and the East
in which western range and cropland and their products play so
conspicuous a part.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 19
SERIOUS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LOSSES
The only way to measure the value of the range is by the social
and economic yardstick, the losses from mismanagement and abuse,
and the contrasting benefits from wise use. The character and ex-
tent of such losses and benefits constitute another major finding
of this report.
Close integration of range and cropland use carries with it an
equally close dependence. Maladjustments or deterioration or de-
struction in either one inescapably reacts upon the other. The
problems of one are inevitably the problems of the other. What
benefits one benefits both. The free play of economic forces has
gone so far in the welding process that it is impossible to escape the
fundamental soundness of this relationship.
IN LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION AND RELATED CROP AGRICULTURE
Most spectacular among the maladjustments in range land use,
because of both the originality and daring of the attempt and the
completeness of the failure, has been the effort to use it in dry-land
farming. As indicated, the attempt has covered a total of over
50 million acres, about half of which has been abandoned for culti-
vation, much of it even before going to patent. Many of the re-
maining occupants are on relief rolls. During favorable crop
years it added greatly to American and world surpluses of such
crops as wheat.
Dry-land farming utilized some of the finest range lands and
crowded the livestock onto lands already overstocked. It occupied
large areas of spring ranges already too small to meet requirements
and forced stockmen to hold their herds on pastures and hayfields
so late in the spring that these also were more or less seriously dam-
aged. The reoccupation of the abandoned lands by valuable forage
plants is very slow. At least 15 million acres will have to be reseeded
artificially at a cost so high that it probably can be borne only by
the public.
A more serious but less spectacular maladjustment has been the
passage to private holders of many millions of acres of range land
submarginal for such ownership. The fact that some 150 million
acres of range lands in the public domain, grazing districts, and
other withdrawals, and most of the additional 58 million in State
ownership has not been transferred to private ownership has been
a clear-cut recognition that some range lands are submarginal for
private holding.
But for range lands once transferred an entirely different psy-
chology has held. It has taken several decades of private owner-
ship, waves of failures following repeated efforts culminating in a
combination of one of the worst depressions and worst droughts
which the West has ever experienced, even to raise the question
seriously.
The question has not arisen earlier in acute form because the
private owner has been living on a range and soil capital built up by
natural processes over thousands of years which has only now be-
come so largely dissipated that he must face realities; because he
could to some extent supplement the deficiencies in his own hold-
20 THE WESTERN RANGE
ings from a free public domain now passing out of the picture;
and because of the tenacity with which the average American has
held to the belief that he could in some way work out his own sal-
vation on almost any land however unproductive.
Two classes of range land fall into the submarginal class for
private ownership: Those (1) with a very low grazing capacity
because of poor soil or adverse climate or both, or because of severe
depletion under conditions so adverse that many years of light
stocking will be required for rehabilitation; those (2) on which the
range has been destroyed by cultivation and must be restored arti-
ficially at high cost.
Most of the southern desert shrub type, which has a grazing ca-
pacity of only four to five cows per section of land, illustrates the
extreme of the first class. This poorly watered land may require the
excessively high investments for water and fencing alone of $50 to
$75 per cow.
A drought expectancy of 2 to 4 years in 10 in most of the semiarid
Southwest, as compared with 1 to 2 years or less in the sandhills
of Nebraska, is reflected in forage production so low in the drought
years that the only alternatives are heavy starvation losses or high
supplemental feeding costs.
When on many millions of acres grazing capacity has been reduced
by 50 or 75 percent or more, and 5 to 10 acres are required to carry
one cow for a month, the costs of production are correspondingly
increased, and if to this is added the long period of very low stock-
ing required for restoration, the possibilities of profit under private
ownership may be removed for years to come.
The vegetation destroyed by cultivation on lands of the second
class can be restored artificially at a cost of $50 to $100 for enough
range to carry a cow a year, and this cost may be no higher than
that of carrying the land for the time required for natural restora-
tion of the forage. Whether private owners can carry this burden
on top of other production costs, except on the very best lands, is
questionable.
The adverse marketing differential already discussed holds for
both classes of land in all of the far- western States except California,
and accentuates low inherent productivity and depletion, or both
combined — especially because of the need for cheap range feed to
meet midwestern competition.
So also does taxation, which bears most heavily on the poor and
most seriously depleted lands. The operator whose range will sup-
port only one animal per 100 acres year long and who pays a tax
of 5 cents per acre, which amounts to $5 per animal unit, labors
under a handicap so serious that again serious question of the feasi-
bility of private ownership is raised.
High tax delinquency in many parts of the range country is at
least a symptom of something so seriously wrong that it will not be
cured by returning the lands to private ownership. And to all of
this evidence must be added the low standards of living and high
relief rolls in some range country.
The information now available does not permit any exact deter-
mination of the area of range land submarginal for private owner-
ship, but it probably runs into scores of millions of acres.
THE MAJOR KAKGffi PROBLEMS 21
The Federal and State land legislation and policies already de-
scribed transferred to private owners hundreds of thousands of
range-land units too small for the support of a family. The result
has been a long, slow, and painful adjustment in which both owners
and the range have suffered. Between 1910 and 1930 alone the
number of ranches in the 100- to 174-acre class in the 11 western
States decreased by more than one-third, and the number of units
over 1,000 acres more than doubled.
The availability of small units encouraged oversettlement, and this
coupled with the effort to build up units of favorable economic size
and the growing shortage of feed led to competition for land, in-
flated values, higher costs, and lower profits. It was a part of the
vicious circle of more cattle in the effort to meet higher costs, and
of more land to carry more cattle. The already depleted range lost
the little chance it had.
Land policies also made possible the acquisition of key areas such
as lambing grounds, water holes, beef pastures, and holding grounds,
so that frequently the ownership of very small tracts permitted the
control of large areas of range. The smaller and weaker stockmen
were at the mercy of the stronger key-area owners.
Range depletion has had a long series of adverse effects on both
crop and livestock growers.
Depleted ranges and abandoned farms serve as a breeding ground
for the beet leafhopper. In six counties in Idaho in 1934 alone this
pest reduced the beet crop by 90 percent. Two beet-sugar factories
did not open and 500 people were thrown out of employment for the
manufacturing season.
Range depletion, among other causes, has forced stockmen to the
excessive use of supplemental crop feeds which may cost from 5 to
10 times more than range feed. Supplemental feed has its proper
place in finishing for the market and for winter use. And supple-
mental feeding induced by overgrazing has in turn been one of the
causes of depletion by keeping many more livestock on the range
than it could carry.
Range depletion and at times the lack of home-grown supplemental
feed or its relatively high cost has been responsible for shipments
of poor or half-fat beef and lambs, and this cuts heavily into possible
profits.
The benefit of long years of effort to build up good breeding
herds has been lost in part through lack of feed. At Miles City,
Mont., calves from good range were 48 pounds heavier at weaning
than those from overgrazed ranges. In New Mexico there was a
difference between rehabilitated and heavily grazed ranges of about
200 pounds in cow weights.
Both calf and lamb crops are decreased and annual losses are
increased when there is too little range forage. Chronic emergencies
and forced sales, which are commonly due to drought and depres-
sions, could often be minimized by ample forage and commensurate
crop land.
Federal feed and crop loans have been necessary on a large scale
in part because of maladjustments and depletion. That the Novem-
ber 1935 percentage of repayment in the western range country is
about 44 percent as compared with 62 for the country as a whole is
significant.
22
THE WESTERN RANGE
Maladjustments and depletion have caused serious decreases in
population with correspondingly bad effects on the social and eco-
nomic life of the communities. Fifteen representative dry-farm
counties in six States, for example, lost from 4 to over 40 percent
of their population in the single decade ending in 1930.
More than enough examples have been given to show that a wide
diversity of economic and social losses results from range depletion
and crop- and range-land maladjustments. The greatest possible
security should conversely result from ranges restored and main-
tained in high productivity, from privately owned units of economic
size with a proper balance in area and productivity of range- and
crop-land, and from a proper distribution of land between private
and public ownership.
FROM EROSION AND FLOODS
In a region of meager precipitation such as most of the West, the
availability of water for irrigation, municipal purposes, power, etc.,
TOTAL WATER-YIELDING AREA
50
100 150
MILLION ACRES
200
250
FIGURE 11.— WATER-YIELDING AREAS
Four-fifths of the 232 million acres which produce 85 percent of the water in the major
western streams comes from range lands, and low precipitation makes water the
limiting factor in nearly all western development.
is in most cases the factor which limits development. All plans
for agricultural and municipal security as well as for most other
industries must take this definitely into account.
Approximately 85 percent of the water of the principal watersheds
of the West is derived from an area of about 232 million acres. Of
the utmost significance is the fact that four-fifths of this important
water-producing area is made up of range lands (fig. 11).
An additional reason for consideration is the fact that no less
than 589 million acres of range lands, according to the best available
information, is eroding so seriously that the destruction which it
causes compels attention. Still further, 352 million acres of this
area is contributing an appreciable amount of silt to major streams
(fig. 12).
Watershed values have been most seriously impaired on the public
domain and on private, lands. Approximately 149 million acres, or
98 percent of the available public domain and minor reservations,
is eroding more or less seriously, and 67 million acres is contributing
THE MAJOK KANGE PROBLEMS
23
silt to major streams (figs. 13 and 14). Over 80 percent of private
land is eroding and 195 million acres is contributing silt. While
not so extensive, erosion on State and Indian lands is also critical.
CONTRIBUTING SIL1 TO MAJOR STREAMS
200
400
600
MILLION ACRES
FIGURE 12.— EROSION AND SILTING OF STREAMS.
Eighty percent of the entire range area is eroding more or less seriously, and hence
reducing the productive capacity of the soil. Nearly half is contributing silt in dis-
turbing quantities to major western streams, and hence impairing their value for
irrigation, power, and municipal water supplies.
Even on the national forests, which have a watershed objective in
administration, 32 million acres is eroding and will require additional
attention.
OWNERSHIP
AREA ERODING
Federal
National Forests
Public Domain,
Grazing Dist's.etc.
Indian Lands.-
State and County.
Private..
20
40 60
PERCENT
80
100
Material erosion
Severe erosion
FIGURE 13.— EROSION BY RANGE OWNERSHIPS.
Erosion is most serious on the public domain and grazing districts, and Indian, State
and county, and private lands are little better. Even 30 years' management has
fallen far short of curing erosion on the national forests.
Scientific investigations have proved beyond a doubt that the plant
cover minimizes and often prevents erosion and floods, and con-
versely, that depletion is a primary cause of both.
24
THE WESTERN RANGE
Studies in Utah to ascertain the effects of range vegetation on
run-off and erosion have shown that by increasing plant density
from 16 to 40 percent, surface run-off from summer rams is reduced
by two-thirds and erosion by more than half its former volume.
In Idaho investigations of the effectiveness of different range types
on surface run-off and erosion show that a plant cover of the most
desirable forage species yielded practically no surface run-off or
sediment, while the poorest cover yielded more than 60 percent of
the precipitation in surface run-off and an equivalent of more than
three-fourths of a ton of sediment per acre.
From a barren area in Missouri over a 6-year period 123 times
as much soil was eroded as from a sod-covered area. Denudation by
fire near Los Angeles increased flood run-off fortyfold and erosion
approximately a thousandfold.
Geologic evidence in Utah has shown that recent destruction of
plant cover has accelerated erosion and increased the number of
OWNERSHIP
SERIOUS SILTING
Federal
National Forests
Public Domain.
GrazingDist's,etc
Indian Lands
State and County.
Private....
50
100
MILLION ACRES
150
200
FIGURE 14.— SILTING OF MAJOR STREAMS BY RANGE OWNERSHIPS.
While the area in private ownership contributing silt to major streams exceeds that in
all other ownerships combined, several other ownerships or forms of control urgently
need attention.
floods beyond anything that had taken place in the preceding 20,000
years. These random examples are merely representative of similar
results obtained throughout the West.
Floods are now increasing in frequency and severity from depleted
western ranges, until scarcely a summer day passes when newspapers
do not carry an account of loss of property or life. In Utah 27
important watersheds flooded in 1932 alone, and investigation showed
their source to have been largely on range lands eaten down to the
bare soil, while in New Mexico and Arizona historical evidence shows
that floods are more frequent and destructive than anything which
occurred in the past.
In 1922 the Palo Verde flood caused $1,000,000 damage. A Eio
Grande flood in 1932 practically destroyed flood-protection improve-
ments worth $5,000,000 and did more than $1,000,000 damage to
other property. Floods in Davis County, Utah, have caused
THE MAJOR RAFGE PROBLEMS 25
$1,000,000 damage since 1923. The La Crescenta flood of 1934 took
a toll of 30 lives and did $5,000,000 damage.
The loss of almost irreplaceable soil on the western range is as
widespread as range depletion itself. In the mountains of all the
western States accelerated sheet and gully erosion are stripping
and cutting slopes and channeling meadows. Southwestern valleys
are being trenched with great arroyos often 100 feet in depth and
300 or more feet wide, and both mesa lands and mountain meadows
are being ruined. The silt loads of the rivers of the Great Plains
and the "black blizzards" of the last few years, with their threat to
farm and industrial values and health, bear testimony to ravaged
lands.
Silt deposits filled the small Austin Dam Reservoir in Texas in
13 years. The Elephant Butte Dam is filling at the rate of about
20,000 acre-feet annually. The McMillan Dam in New Mexico is now
valuable only for diversion. The same thing is happening in greater
or less degree in most of the reservoirs throughout the West.
The grazing value of range watershed lands may not often exceed
$3 per acre. The watershed value is much more difficult to deter-
mine. Some indication of relative values may be gained, however,
from a consideration of dependent investments. More than 5.8 bil-
lion dollars is invested in irrigated land and improvements, as com-
pared with about 4.1 billion dollars in range livestock and related
ranch properties. Each of the 475 million acres of range land yield-
ing water or contributing silt to streams supports an investment of
$12.27 in irrigation works, lands, and facilities, and this figure would
be still higher if the investments for power and municipal water
supplies were added.
Another measure of the value of the range cover, can be obtained
by considering the loss in the productive capacity of the soil from
erosion as a result of depletion. The fertile top layers go first.
Several hundred million acres have already lost 1 to several inches,
and the productive capacity may have been reduced by one-fourth
or one-half or. more. These layers can be replaced only very slowly,
as shown by investigations under the more favorable conditions in
the East which indicate a rate of about 1 inch per 1,000 years.
Fortunately, man is not helpless in this situation, black as the
picture now is. On many of the protected municipal watersheds of
the West and on the managed watersheds of the national forests are
examples of arrested erosion and controlled floods which are the
direct result of range restoration. Not only has the production of
forage been increased but the services which watersheds should
render in maximum flows of usable water for dependent crop agri-
culture, in municipal water supplies, in power, in clear fishing
streams, and in greater security to life and property have followed
as a matter of course.
IN WILDLIFE
Wildlife is one of the natural products of the range. Its present
annual economic value is estimated at more than $90,000,000. To
evaluate its economic significance, however, expenditures exceeding
$40,000,000 by hunters and fishermen should be added, and, in part
also, those by recreationists of over $155,000,000, because one of the
26 THE WESTEKN BANGE
intangible but chief values of wildlife is the increased recreational
attraction and enjoyment which it affords.
No one familiar with wildlife requirements will question the state-
ment that the range with little or no impairment in its value for
other uses could support a vastly larger wildlife population. So far,
in fact, have numbers been reduced that any recital of what remains
is in itself an indication of both tangible and intangible social and
economic losses.
A few outstanding examples will suffice. The former millions of
buffalo have declined to the few thousand on reservations ; the thirty
or forty million antelope to about 65,000; the few mountain sheep,
goats, moose, and grizzly bear left are barely holding their own ; the
scattered remnants of upland game birds and fur bearers are still
declining; the reduction of waterfowl has become a matter of na-
tional concern. Most of the big-game animals have been crowded off
their original range into much less favorable conditions.
The chief factors and causes which are responsible for the present
situation, discussed in detail later, need only be listed here :
1. The deterioration of the habitat through range depletion which
has destroyed both food supplies and cover for land animals and
birds and silted fishing streams.
2. Complications growing out of the passage of large areas of land
to private ownership under a policy which offers no incentive to the
owner to protect and maintain wildlife.
3. Maladjustments in land use, such as swamp drainage, that have
attempted but failed to use for agricultural crop production land
which would render its highest social and economic return in wild-
life production.
4. Unrestricted or poorly controlled hunting and fishing.
5. A series of ill-advised or poorly handled constructive measures
such, for example, as game preserves, transplanting, buck laws, etc.,
which have created almost as many problems as they have solved.
6. Protection alone defeating its own purpose by leading to over-
population.
7. Wildlife agencies recruited on the basis of political rather than
technical qualifications.
8. The lack of adequate technical knowledge.
9. The belated development of the basic concept that game man-
agement is required, having for its purpose production as a crop
with provision for the annual harvesting of the production or sur-
plus, this in proper correlation with other legitimate uses of the
range.
The fundamental cause, however, is again the typical American
philosophy of prodigal destruction rather than the conservation of
natural resources.
Public interest in wildlife has increased very rapidly during the
last few years, the direct result of the efforts of many sportsmen's
and other associations and of State and Federal agencies. Although
many of these activities have not reached the fundamental problems,
nearly all have constructive aspects. Through them, for example,
State agencies have contributed toward the rehabilitation of the wild-
life resource. The Biological Survey has established a number of
migratory bird and other reservations, controlled predatory animals
injurious both to wildlife and domestic livestock, controlled range-
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 27
destroying rodents, and conducted research necessary as a basis for
wildlife management. The Bureau of Fisheries and numerous State
agencies have stocked many western streams and cooperated in their
improvement.
The national forests have had a more important effect on the
rehabilitation of wildlife in the range country than any other meas-
ure so far adopted, and are a concrete, although far from per-
fect, indication of the possibilities. National forest increases, which
for big game animals alone are about 75 percent in the last decade,
have been brought about with very little reduction in other forms
of use, such as livestock grazing. The reappearance of wildlife
has undoubtedly been one of the factors responsible for over 38
million visitors in the national forests in 1934 as compared with
3 million in 1917. These increases have not come without difficul-
ties growing out of rigid State laws which stood in the way of re-
ducing surpluses regardless of whether feed was available to keep
the game from starving, or of the legitimate requirements for live-
stock or other forms of use, nor without other difficulties in working
out effective cooperation between State and Federal agencies.
IN RECREATION
During the past half century public opinion regarding the social
necessity of outdoor recreation, not alone for the favored few but
for all, has undergone as radical a change as that regarding bath-
tubs and night air. People generally have learned that modern life
makes demands for which the most practical remedy is periodic
association with nature. The needs and the benefits are both physi-
cal and mental.
If increased opportunity for wholesome outdoor activities is not
provided, existing play areas will be so crowded that only partial
returns for expenditures of time and money can be obtained, and
greater leisure time may not as it should contribute to health and
happiness. The American people have developed a mobility which
dwarfs into insignificance the outdoor spaces that can be dedicated
exclusively to recreation.
Eange lands, as well as others, possessing the qualities sought by
outdoor recreationists have thus acquired economic values which
often exceed those for other services. They are capital assets of
their communities. They draw large sums of money that otherwise
would not be received ; money which contributes as fully to economic
security as that from any other source.
People do not as a rule pay directly for the privilege of enjoying
scenic charm or other recreational values, but they do pay indirectly
through purchases of commodities and services for which there
otherwise would be no local market. The recreational use of lands
means that the market is brought to the resource without cost of
transportation.
The serious depletion of most range areas, the reduction in wild-
life, the erosion and silting of streams, have all been reflected in
impaired recreational values. Where originally the mind was in-
spired by views of grass-covered and flower-studded slopes, it is
now depressed by the sight of a terrain scored and dissected by
28 THE WESTERN RANGE
erosion and only thinly covered by plants. Healthful recreation
from hunting and fishing have also been greatly curtailed.
Recreational use may entail changes in grazing, farming, etc.>
against which objections may be made. All members of a com-
munity share in its prosperity. In communities which make full use
of all natural advantages, local demands establish good markets and
prices, property values are increased, and local institutions are main-
tained at higher standards. Thus the entire community, including
the industrialists, benefit from the multiple use management of nat-
ural resources to a degree which frequently offsets or exceeds possible
losses from restriction in grazing or other forms of use.
These facts are amply confirmed by a quarter century of national
forest administration. The traditional purposes of the national
forests were primarily utilitarian, timber production, watershed pro-
tection, and forage for game and domestic livestock.
But the recreational use of the national forests has grown amaz-
ingly, as shown by the elevenfold increase in the estimated number
of visitors to over 38 million in the 17 years ending in 1934. Some
changes in the use of timber and ranges have been necessary on the
one hand and some acceptance by recreationists of less than pri-
meval conditions on the other. Actually all interests are better off.
In the light of national-forest experience it seems inevitable that
the administration of other publicly owned range lands, both Fed-
eral and State, having recreational value will, if they are to serve
the highest public interest, have to take recreational needs into ac-
count along with those for grazing, watershed protection, and wild-
life. That recreational use has a place on privately owned range
lands as well is clearly shown by the present status of dude ranching.
IN DEPENDENT COMMUNITIES
The small agricultural communities throughout the range coun-
try suffer both directly and indirectly from any and all the factors
which reduce the prosperity of, or otherwise adversely affect, either
crop or range agriculture, as the mere listing of a few of the con-
nections will show. The local merchants who depend largely upon
rural trade; the mechanics and laborers; the professions such as
medicine and law; the semipublic organizations such as churches;
the public institutions such as schools and the public activities such
as highway construction and maintenance, all of which are de-
pendent upon taxation; the well-being of all of these and many
more fluctuates immediately and directly with that of their agri-
cultural constituency.
It is equally obvious that the small agricultural community is
merely the stepping stone to the larger supply centers which serve
the agricultural regions, and these in turn to the larger western
cities. Directly and indirectly involved also are the railroads and
other transportation facilities, the banks, and industries such as
lumbering which at first thought seem remote but which actually
depend in part for the sale of their products upon the ability of
agriculture to purchase.
In the complex present-day civilization with its high degree of
specialization, maladjustments in any one important part extends di-
rectly or indirectly into, most or all of the rest, locally, regionally,
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 29
and even nationally. It is a delicately balanced mechanism exceed-
ingly sensitive throughout its entire working to a disturbance af-
fecting any one part.
IN HUMAN WASTAGE
By far the most serious result is human wastage. What sum total
of human wastage has grown directly and indirectly out of the de-
pletion of the western ranges and the maladjustments in the use
of range and interrelated croplands will never be known. That
it has been very large there can be no doubt. Neither can there be
any doubt that the struggle has served to develop a strong, re-
sourceful, self-reliant group of survivors who form a most desir-
able addition to American citizenship.
Much of the wastage has been so insidious and obscure that it is
never traced back to its fundamental causes. Successive waves of
failures under the more adverse conditions, such as the lands sub-
marginal for private ownership, the wrecking of high hopes and
aspirations, and the hopelessness and despair and the lowering of
initiative and self-reliance that grow out of failure, the melting away
of lifetime savings, the casting adrift of thousands of families to
become a floating instead of a stable population, reduced standards
of living, uncompleted education, and other lost opportunities, all
of these and many more are the barest indication of what unre-
strained exploitation and destruction mean in terms of human happi-
ness and well-being.
In part the human wastage was the price which had to be paid
in a pioneering enterprise. But in much larger part it is the price
of glaring and unnecessary mistakes. Any conclusion to the con-
trary is the saddest kind of a commentary on American efficiency.
Certainly the possibility of eliminating or reducing human wastage
in the future is the most compelling justification for the restoration
of the range resource and the permanent maintenance of its pro-
ductivity for the highest forms of use.
RANGE CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION
The black range cloud like all others has its silver lining. Some
pitifully small areas have been spared, and what is even more signif-
icant, other much larger areas have been rehabilitated. On the
latter primarily, range management having a partially scientific
basis has been developed and successfully applied. The exceptions,
which have not been entirely confined to any one form of land
ownership or control, emphasize the general situation by contrast,
demonstrate the value of good stewardship, and point the way to the
solution of the range problem (figs. 15 and 16). Their existence and
the reasons for them constitute one of the major findings of the
report.
PRIVATE LANDS
Approximately 376 million acres, or 51 percent of the range land
of the West, is in private ownership. Theoretically the incentive of
ownership should have kept large areas in good condition, but
actually it has been so ineffective that the original grazing capacity
30
THE WESTEEN RANGE
has been reduced by more than half. Only on scattered ranges and
individual ranches is the range in good condition.
One wool growers' association in Idaho has maintained most of its
forage in far above average condition, numbers of stock and grazing
seasons have been limited, and reasonably satisfactory management
has been established. A cooperative association in Montana has
been equally successful. Individual ranches which have maintained
their ranges through management might be cited in all States. In
California a number of ranges which have been grazed continuously
for over 50 years have been managed on a sustained forage yield
basis. One badly depleted ranch in Marin County has been virtually
OWNERSHIP
AREAS
Federal
National Forests
Public Domain
Grazing Dist's,etc
Indian Lands
State and County.
Private-.
50
100
MILLION ACRES
150
200
In reasonably
good condition
In unsatisfactory
or poor condition
FIGURE 15.— RANGE AREAS IN REASONABLY GOOD AND IN POOR CONDITION.
Only about 95 million acres of the total range area is now in reasonably good condition,
and nearly 90 percent of this is on the national forests and private lands. The
reasonably good areas in other ownerships and forms of control are insignificant. Even
more impressive is the size of the areas in unsatisfactory or poor condition.
restored, and a 40,000-acre ranch in Humboldt County still supports
a maximum stand of the valuable California oatgrass. A 12 million-
acre area in the sandhills of Nebraska, where the blowing of the
soil following depletion early taught the stockmen the need for con-
servative grazing, has largely been maintained in good condition.
This area as a whole constitutes an outstanding example of satisfac-
tory management of privately owned range lands.
The explanation of these exceptional cases lies in various combina-
tions of favorable natural and economic conditions — better than
average growing conditions; highly resistant and recuperative for-
age plants; good soils; good grazing capacity; conditions which
favor good stock distribution; low purchase, carrying, and produc-
tion costs; balanced economic units; favorable location to markets:
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS
31
the influence of national-forest management ; and finally, good busi-
ness and range management. Such factors as these are responsible
for roughly the 44 million acres or 12 percent of privately owned
range that is in good or fairly good condition.
INDIAN LANDS
More than 48 million acres of grazing land chiefly within western
reservations fall into the Indian land category (fig. 17) . The pres-
ent condition of this range varies from reasonably satisfactory in
Oregon, Washington, a portion of Idaho, and the northern Great
Plains, to serious depletion on most of the area in the Southwest
Indian lands as a whole have been depleted 51 percent, and during
OWNERSHIP
RANGE AREAS IN REASONABLY GOOD CONDITION
Federal
National Forests
Public Domain,
Grazing Dist's,
Indian Lands
State and County
Private. _
10
20 30
PERCENT
40
50
FIGURE 16.— PERCENTAGE OP RANGE OWNERSHIPS IN REASONABLY GOOD
CONDITION.
When the percentage of total range areas in reasonably good condition is taken into
account, the story is markedly different from that in figure 15. The national forests
have the best record, but this is creditable only in the light of the condition of the
ranges when management began 30 years ago.
the last 30 years the trend on three-fourths of the area has been
downward, while improvement has been confined to 10 percent.
What lifts the Indian lands into the exceptional classification, how-
ever, is the extension of a definite program of management over all
range lands in 1930 with the delegation of grazing supervision to
the Forestry Branch in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. On the north-
western reservations, where earlier progress had been made, the pro-
gram was readily put into effect. Elsewhere the major provisions
of the program have been applied to the grazing of white-owned
livestock. Progress has been slow, however, on ranges used by the
Indians themselves, especially in the Southwest. It is hoped that
through persistent effort and extension work the overstocking can be
reduced. The recent Wheeler-Howard Act provides among other
things for the stabilization of land status and authorizes consolida-
tion for management purposes. All in all, while difficult problems
remain unsolved, the stage has been set for satisfactory range con-
servation on Indian land.
32
THE WESTERN RANGE
GRAZING DISTRICTS
The Taylor Grazing Act (June 1934) authorizing grazing districts
of 80 million acres consummates many years' effort to place the open
public domain under administration. Sixty-one million acres of
range lands have been included in grazing districts. More than 67
million acres of Federal lands in the unreserved public domain and
National Forests
Indian Reservations
Established Grazing Districts
Proposed Grazing Districts
FIGUEB 17. — The national forests, Indian reservations, and established and proposed
grazing districts.
approximately 23 million acres in various reservations and with-
drawals still lack any provision for grazing management. With
average deterioration on the public domain of nearly 70 percent,
which crowns a downward trend for nine-tenths of the whole for
the last 30 years, this is the most seriously overgrazed and depleted
range land in the United States. More than 95 percent of the avail-
able range on the public domain grazing districts and other reserva-
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 33
tions is eroding, one-half materially and one-half severely ; nearly
45 percent of the area is contributing silt to important streams,
wildlife values have been greatly reduced, and the utter lack of
conservation measures has led to serious social and economic malad-
justments.
The title of the Grazing Act lists as its purposes:
To stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil
deterioration ; to provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development ;
to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range; and for
other purposes.
The Secretary of the Interior is directed to —
make provision for the protection, administration, regulation, and improvement
of such grazing districts as may be created.
The general purpose of the act and many of its provisions are
admirable, but its administration may be greatly hampered, or even
defeated, by restrictive clauses. Much depends upon the administra-
tive policies adopted under its broad discretionary powers. A clause
in the first sentence, "pending its final disposal", that is of the range
land, weakens the entire structure and discourages far-sighted ob-
jectives by implying a transitional status. Inadequate provision is
made for special watershed protection and for the conservation of
resources other than grazing, such as wildlife, forests, and recreation.
The emphasis is primarily on grazing utilization.
The provisions of the act making the grazing privilege an ad-
junctive right in proportion to land and range- water ownership,
perpetuate and enhance existing monopolies in land use with a public
resource and may even encourage further monopolies. Adjustments
needed to make the grazing privilege more fully supplement crop
and other range lands, and contribute to the maximum number of
satisfactory economic home units are hampered and may be blocked.
Some provisions of the act may make grazing privileges practically
vested rights and prevent reductions needed for range protection.
Cooperation with local associations of stockmen and appropriate
State agencies is provided. It is doubtful, however, whether this
desirable feature should be made the main instrument of administra-
tion. Present indications are that local control will be largely by
advisers elected by the stockmen except for supervision and basic
technical criteria for conservation of the natural resources by Gov-
ernment personnel. The danger is that because of economic pres-
sure stocKmen will not impose sufficient restrictions upon themselves
and their neighbors to rehabilitate the range and manage it satis-
factorily, and that they may not amply safeguard other resources
such as watersheds, recreation, and game, in which the general pub-
lic is vitally interested. It is questionable whether the incentive for
good management will be greater than under complete private
ownership.
THE NATIONAL FORESTS
The examples of even fairly satisfactory range management are
so much the exception that it is difficult to outline the progress made
on the national forests without giving the appearance of partisan-
ship.
64946—36 1
34 THE WESTERN RANGE
Large-scale range conservation and management has pioneered
and largely centered on the national forests. Eighty-two and a half
million acres, or 62 percent of the total area of the western na-
tional forests are usable and available for grazing. Approximately
1,430,000 cattle and horses, and 6,161,000 sheep and goats are grazed
several months of each year.
The national forests are the direct result of action by far-sighted,
public-spirited leaders who recognized the widespread exploitation
and depletion of our forest and watershed resources and the critical
need for their conservation and wise use. They began as "Forest
Reserves" in the Department of the Interior under the act of March
3, 1891, which authorized the President to withdraw and set apart
by Executive order areas for timber production and for maintain-
ing favorable conditions of water flow.
Up to February 1, 1905, only 63.3 million acres had been set apart,
but very little progress had been made in the administration, protec-
tion, and management of the lands. The policy was more one of
"locking up" the resources than of wise use.
On February 1, 1905, the forest reserves were transferred to what
has since become the Forest Service in the Department of Agricul-
ture, and later renamed national forests. President Theodore Roose-
velt increased the area to 194.5 million acres, to prevent further ex-
ploitation and monopolistic control. Civil service became the basis
for selection of personnel and the organization was decentralized to
facilitate and localize administration.
The objectives in the administration of the national forest ranges
have been:
1. Conservation and use. — Perpetuation of all of the resources
through protection, development, and wise use.
2. Multiple use. — Correlation in management and use of all the
resources to obtain the highest net public benefits. In such correla-
tion timber production and watershed protection are necessarily
given high priority.
3. Equal opportunity. — Protection of the settler and home builder
against monopoly and unfair competition in the use of the resources.
4. Integration with agriculture. — Relating the use of range and
other national forest resources to farm-grown forage crops, range,
and other agricultural resources to obtain the highest benefits from
all the land.
5. Stability of use. — Safeguarding livestock agriculture by af-
fording maximum stability in range use consistent with national
forest objectives.
6. Cooperation with users. — Provision for an advisory voice in
national forest administration by stockmen and other users.
7. Local administration. — A businesslike and technical adminis-
tration designed and organized to settle local problems expedi-
tiously according to local conditions.
Except for an advisory voice which came later, regulations incor-
porating these basic policies were put into ^ effect on July 1, 1905.
Modifications have been made from time to time for clarification and
better application.
Most range managers in the Forest Service now have both scien-
tific training and practical experience in range administration^ a
gradual transformation from a staff made up largely of men with
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 35
practical experience only. They ascertain, by local study, the rela-
tive value for grazing of the various range plants, their ability to
withstand grazing, soil, and other requirements for growth and re-
production, the best methods of use, and other factors, which to-
gether determine safe grazing capacity, proper seasons of use,
adaptability of the range to different classes of stock, requirements
for sustaining the forage production, and how to hold the soil and
maintain its fertility.
Range management plans which apply these data are in effect on
four-fifths of the area. Stock is controlled on the range by salting
practice, proper herding, and the construction of watering places,
drift fences, and other range improvements. The stockmen partici-
pate actively in management both individually on their respective
range allotments and collectively through livestock associations and
advisory boards.
Grazing capacity has been improved 19 percent since 1910. Na-
tional-forest ranges today on the whole are 70 percent as good as
virgin range, as contrasted with 33 percent on the public domain and
49 percent on privately owned range in the West. Real progress
has been made in range restoration, considering the pioneer nature
of the effort, the extent of depletion when the forests were estab-
lished, the time required for rebuilding the soil, the rough topog-
raphy, the necessity of grazing large numbers of livestock each year,
the overload of livestock carried during the war period, the recent
protracted drought, the desire to avoid undue hardships on the live-
stock industry through drastic reductions, and the time required to
overcome human inertia. All of these factors have retarded reha-
bilitation. But the fact remains that the range has not been fully
restored. Too many sore spots remain, and remedial action has been
too slow on many of them. For the national-forest range area as a
whole it is difficult to escape the conviction that progress should
have been greater, although it may be too easy in retrospect to min-
imize the handicaps faced and overcome. Watershed services,
wildlife numbers, recreational use, and timber production have been
increased, although here also there is still ample room for improve-
ment.
On the whole, the possibilities of range conservation, use, and man-
agement have been demonstrated, and public responsibility has
largely been redeemed. Shortcomings exist, and important unsolved
problems remain, prominent among which are full range restoration
and a further improvement in range management, more equitable
distribution of grazing privileges socially and economically, in which
too little progress has been made, and more satisfactory relations
with range permittees.
RESILIENCE OF RANGE LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
Range livestock production has shown a remarkable persistence.
It has been like a patient suffering from several diseases any one of
which the doctors believe should be fatal, but who continues to live
a lusty, vigorous life.
JRange livestock production has been a new American venture,
without traditional background. For forage production it has had
to contend with a climate which at best constitutes a drought more
36 THE WESTERN RANGE
severe than any which the remainder of the United States has ever
experienced. Western droughts have periodically wiped out the
gains of years. Cheap range feed has been the one great competitive
advantage of the western range country under a serious marketing
handicap as compared with the Middle West. This feed, by flagrant
neglect and mismanagement, has been seriously damaged and in
places almost destroyed. Over many millions of acres the fertile
soil, slowly built up during thousands of years, has been wasted
away and with it the basis of forage production. In going the soil
has often carried damage and destruction to far-distant areas and
communities.
Range livestock production has built up its land tenure under land
policies so unsuitable that the final result is an indiscriminate mix-
ture of holdings large and small, individual and corporate, private
and public, Federal and State. It has been encouraged by competi-
tive forces, and by public-land laws and policies formulated for en-
tirely different conditions and transplanted with little or no modifi-
cation, to assume the burden of millions of acres of submarginal
land on which the private owner never had a fighting chance.
Maladjustments in the use of millions of acres of land for crop
production, which widespread failure has shown to be suitable only
for range, have destroyed for years to come some of the most pro-
ductive range territory. In the balance of seasonal range areas and
in the balance between crop and range feed a whole series of other
maladjustments have crept in.
Although purely an agricultural function, the jurisdiction over
Federal range lands has been split between two departments. One,
charged with the responsibility for building up and supporting all
phases of agriculture for the entire country, has for the past 30
years been trying on a large scale an experiment on the publicly
owned national forests in the conservation of natural resources, in-
cluding range, entirely new in American history. The other, charged
with the responsibility for the disposal of Federal lands, has only
within the last 2 years begun the attempt to administer the ranges
which private owners could and would not take from the puWic
domain. The agricultural agencies of the States have had little
voice and no responsibility in the administration of Federal grants,
which have been handled by agencies charged primarily with land
disposal.
Range livestock production has operated under an almost impos-
sible credit structure. It has been crushed time and again by de-
pressions. Its markets have been controlled by outside agencies or
forces, often to its detriment.
Within its own ranks it has often waged relentless war, big man
against little, cattleman against sheepman. For years it fought the
crop farmer, who has now become an essential part of a soundly
balanced enterprise. It has all too often fought the public agencies
which were attempting to maintain its resource and to solve its basic
problems.
And yet possibly no other American enterprise has shown a greater
resilience. None has had a greater confidence in the promise of the
future or in its own ability to meet every problem which might
arise. The only conclusion is a virility, an innate vitality, and some-
thing fundamentally sound in the use of range for livestock grazing
THE MAJOK BANGE PBOBLEMS
37
which deserves and should be given a far better opportunity in its
own and in the public interest than it has ever had.
DRASTIC REMEDIAL ACTION REQUIRED
The bewilderingly complex range problem will be clarified and
consideration of the program required for its solution will be facili-
tated by breaking it down into its component parts, many of which
in themselves constitute important problems. This can be done only
at the expense of some repetition of the preceding and following
discussions. The reader may if he wishes skip this cataloging of
problems to the point on page 40 where those of greatest immediate
importance and urgency are summarized.
MAJOR RANGE RESOURCE PROBLEMS
c
TO HALT AND REVERSE DEPLETION
TO CHECK EROSION AND REBUILD SOIL
TO RESTORE DEPLETED RANGES
Total
Range *v
Area
TO PUT RANGE UNDER MANAGEMENT
) 200 400 600 728
MILLION ACRES
FIGURE 18. — MAJOR RANGE RESOURCE PROBLEMS IN TERMS OF AREA.
One measure of the magnitude of some of the major range resource problems is the
hundreds of millions of acres on which constructive programs must be carried out.
All constitute a high percentage of the total range area of 728 million acres.
The number of interrelated and overlapping problems in this
break-down is so large and many of them are so crucial that no one
is the key to the entire situation. They are so enmeshed in the)
established economic and social set-up that all solutions are fraught
with extraordinary difficulties. No single feasible line of construc-
tive action offers the remotest hope of a satisfactory solution.
1. One major group of problems centers in the range resource and
its management.
(a) How stop further forage depletion on the 553 million acres, or
76 percent of the total range area still deteriorating, and start the
forage on the upgrade (fig. 18).
(o) How place all range lands under management. Approxi-
mately 523 million acres is now subject to practically unrestricted
grazing.
38 THE WESTERN EANGE
(c) How restore to the nearest possible approach to original pro-
ductivity, and maintain in such productivity thereafter, the 675 mil-
lion acres, or 93 percent of the range area, now depleted.
(d) How prevent further deterioration of the soil on which forage
production depends on the 589 million acres now eroding more or
less seriously, and start the rebuilding process.
(e) How restore the soil resource to the nearest possible approach
to its original fertility, and maintain it at this level.
2. A second group of major problems centers in land and its
ownership and use.
(a) How obtain the soundest distribution of ownership of range
lands by curing existing maladjustments, and preventing their re-
currence, first as between private and public holdings, and second,
as between county, State, and Federal.
(b) How further unscramble the existing ownership mess, and
obtain satisfactory livelihood units under private ownership, and
units which will permit efficient administration under public
ownership.
(c) How insure the use of land in the range country for the range
use or crop production for which it is best suited, by rectifying
existing maladjustments and preventing future recurrence; or to
state much the same problem in another way, how obtain a satis-
factory integration of range and crop agriculture, the best balance
in private holdings, individually and collectively, and as between
public range and private range and croplands.
(d) How, through the correlation of the various uses for which
range lands are suited, obtain the maximum use or service consistent
with the conservation of the resource, and hence the highest current
public benefits. The uses involved are:
Livestock production estimated at a grazing capacity 50 years
hence of at least 17.1 million animal units, instead of the present
safe capacity of 10.8 million units.
Watershed services in the delivery of the maximum amount of
usable water, with the minimum of erosion, silting, and destructive
floods; services which on many areas will constitute the dominant
requirement.
The production on forested ranges of timber crops which on the
national forests will be one of the dominant uses.
Provision for such part of the rapidly growing need for recre-
ation as the scenic and other facilities of the range country can
furnish.
The sustained production of wildlife as a crop.
3. A third group of major problems centers in privately owned
range lands and domestic livestock.
(a) How relieve private owners of the burden of lands submar-
ginal for such ownership, and of lands on which the cost of maintain-
ing high watershed or other public values is excessive for private
holding, and how also prevent the passage of such, lands to private
ownership in the future.
(b) How care for and improve submarginal and high public
value lands pending transfer to the public, which may require many
years.
(c) How obtain a positive recognition of the responsibility of
stewardship.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 39
(d) How reduce the present 60-percent excess of 6.5 million ani-
mal units to what the range as a whole can carry and still improve.
Because of livestock ownership the producer is as directly con-
cerned on public lands as on those he holds in fee simple.
(e) How place private range lands under satisfactory range
management.
(/) How restore to the western livestock producer and how main-
tain his one large competitive advantage of cheap range feed.
(g) How aid private owners to acquire economic units which will
support a family under reasonable standards of living.
(h) How minimize or remove the other existing financial handi-
caps to economically justified private ownership in inflated land
values, unsound credits, unsatisfactory market conditions, etc.
(i) How improve existing range animal husbandry.
(;') How furnish a reasonable incentive to the private landowner
to produce and protect game on his own lands.
4. A fourth group of major problems centers in State and county
range lands.
(a) How reconcile the need for the conservation of the range
resource in the general public interest on Federal land grants with
the demand for revenue from these lands by dependent institutions.
(b) How provide for the administration and management, for
the various purposes for which they are suited, of all State and other
public range lands by competent agricultural agencies.
(c) How bring order out of chaos in the handling of tax
delinquency.
(d) How provide for the acquisition of the State's share of sub-
marginal and high public value range lands.
(e) How provide for the consolidation of State and county owner-
ships into efficient administrative units.
(/) How carry a long-term constructive program, particularly if
it cannot be made self -liquidating.
5. A fifth group of problems centers in Federal range lands.
(a) How, since it is a strictly agricultural activity, provide for
the handling of the grazing districts by an agricultural agency.
(b) How place the remainder of the public domain and other
Federal withdrawals and reservations under administration and
management.
(c) How provide for a sound social and economic distribution of
grazing privileges on all Federal lands ; probably requiring on graz-
ing districts the modification of organic legislation; and on the
national forests, further improvement of administrative policies.
(d) How prevent the establishment of prescriptive rights on
grazing districts.
(e) How prevent a conflict in Federal and State authority in the
administration of the grazing districts.
(f) How insure an effectively correlated administration of all
Federal range lands, and at the same time recognize also the funda-
mental distinction between the national forests and the more strictly
range group of lands. This means providing on the national forests
for the necessary further correlation of range use with that of timber
and other national-forest resources, and on other lands providing for
the further correlation with the resources involved.
(g) How provide for the Federal share of the responsibility for
acquiring private lands submarginal for such ownership, and lands
40 THE WESTERN RANGE
with high public values which cannot or will not be safeguarded
by private owners.
(A) How provide for the consolidation of Federal lands into
workable administrative units.
SI) How reconcile the existing difference between national forests
grazing districts in the Federal contribution to States, etc., in
lieu of taxes and place it on an equitable basis.
(j) How provide for an effective working relationship between
the Federal Government and the States in the handling of wildlife
on Federal lands.
(k) How carry a long-term affirmative program, particularly if
it cannot be made self -liquidating.
6. A sixth group of major problems centers in the social and eco-
nomic aspects of integrated range and crop agriculture.
How prevent further human wastage and insure reasonable stand-
ards of living and social and economic security for the maximum
number of people that the combined range and cropland resource
can support. The handling of all lands regardless of ownership is
involved.
7. A seventh group of major problems centers in basic knowledge.
(a) How obtain the basic information needed by both private
and public owners on the biological, social, and economic phases of
the conservation and use of the entire range resource.
(5) How insure the application of this knowledge by private
owners and public-land managers.
In briefest form the lines of action of greatest immediate urgency
and importance are —
1. For the range and soil resource. — To stop further soil and for-
age depletion, start both on the upgrade, reduce excessive stocking,
and place all range lands under management.
2. For land ownership and use. — To rectify existing maladjust-
ments and obtain a sound distribution of ownership between pri-
vate and various public agencies, build up economic private and
public units, balance and integrate crop and range use, and cor-
relate the livestock, watershed, forest, wildlife, and recreation forms
of range land uses and services.
3. For privately owned range lands and livestock. — To relieve
private owners of submarginal and high watershed and other pub-
lic-value lands, obtain a recognition of the responsibility of steward-
ship, reduce excessive stocking, place lands under management, re-
store cheap range feed, build up economic units, and minimize or
remove various other financial handicaps.
4. For State and county lands. — To reconcile range conservation
and the financial needs of State institutions, place lands under ad-
ministration and management by agricultural agencies, solve the tax
delinquency problem, and share the acquisition of submarginal and
high public-value lands.
5. For Federal range lands. — To transfer the grazing districts to
the Department of Agriculture; place all remaining lands under
administration and management; to interpret and probably amend
the Taylor Grazing Act to provide for a sound distribution of graz-
ing privileges, prevent the establishment of prescriptive rights, and
provide for the correlation of various grazing uses; and share the
acquisition of submarginal and high public-value lands.
THE MAJOK KANGE PEOBLEMS 41
6. For social and economic security^ — To prevent further human
wastage and insure social and economic security for the population
dependent on the combined range-cropland resource.
7. For basic knowledge. — To obtain and apply the information
necessary for the conservation and wise use of the range resource
for public betterment.
Implicit in these problems and lines of action is the question of
the desirability or necessity, if Federal obligations are to be fully
redeemed, for the full concentration of responsibility for public
action in a single agency. A similar question holds for the States.
To KESTORE AND MAINTAIN THE KANGE
It is perfectly clear from the preceding discussion that the range
resource — the forage and the soil on which it grows — is the key to
all forms of use and hence to all the social and economic benefits
which should flow from such uses.
The most urgent range resource problems are to stop further
deterioration of forage and soil and start both on the upgrade. The
ultimate objective is full restoration and permanent maintenance in
full productivity. The means which must be employed to accom-
plish both purposes is to reduce excessive stocking to what the range
can carry and improve, and to place all range lands under
management.
If the range is to serve its greatest usefulness, plans for stopping
deterioration, and for restoration and maintenance, must be formu-
lated around the highest form or forms of use, whether for the
grazing of domestic livestock, for the services which watersheds
should render, for timber production, for the production of wildlife,
or for recreation.
FOR LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
One specific indication of the size of the job of halting further
deterioration, of restoration, and of maintenance is the 728 million
acres of range land which it must cover.
A specific indication of the size of the restoration job is the fact
that the present grazing capacity of the range as a whole must be
increased by about 110 percent to reach its original condition. Still
further, as shown by table 3, restoration must provide for more than
633 million acres now depleted more than one-fourth, nearly 390 mil-
lion acres more than half, and nearly 120 million acres more than
three-fourths.
TABLE 3. — The restoration /oft in terms of areas now depleted
Depletion classes
Area depleted
1,000 acres
Percent
Moderate (0-25 percent)...
94,825
244,997
270, 470
117,904
13.0
33.7
37.1
16.2
Material (26-50 percent)
Severe (51—75 percent)
Extreme (76-100 percent)
Total
728,196
100
42 THE WESTERN RANGE
In briefest form the specific lines of action required are :
1. First and by all odds most important, the reduction of stocking
to the actual present grazing capacity. Since present stocking of
the entire range area, now 17.3 million animal units, is 60 percent in
excess of its estimated capacity, it will have to be reduced by about
6.5 million animal units.
The guiding principle should be stocking year after year with
the number of animals which each unit will support each season
without injury to the range. The outstanding need for restoration
and the wide fluctuations of climate and hence of forage production
require conservative stocking for satisfactory results, and this under
most conditions should leave from 20 to 30 percent of the palatable
growth of the important forage plants during average years. In
addition, stocking should be low enough to prevent injury to water-
sheds and tree growth, and should be properly correlated with wild-
life and recreational requirements.
The practical difficulties involved in such reductions are fully
recognized, but the owners of private lands and managers of public
lands should not overlook the possibility that actual returns will be
greater in the long run from conservation than from continued over-
grazing. They may be greater immediately. The reduction figures
given are for the entire range. Not all ranges and individual hold-
ings are overstocked. Many stockmen who have overstocked free
public ranges in self -protection will undoubtedly welcome the oppor-
tunity to make reductions to actual grazing capacity when these
ranges are placed under administration and the feed for their live-
stock is assured.
2. A judicious balance for range rehabilitation between natural
and artificial revegetation.
The cheapest and most practical method of halting destruction and
of restoration on about 635 million acres or 87 percent of the total
range areas is through the control of the stocking and the use of
sound grazing systems. This means in essence merely giving the
native forage a chance to come back under its own marvelous
recuperative powers.
On about 38 million acres, or 5 percent, of the most completely
depleted areas such as abandoned farm lands and those which are
most critical from the standpoint of watershed protection, the choice
lies between artificial revegetation, which has a great advantage in
time but will cost about $2.85 per acre, and waiting for natural
processes, which according to the best information now available
would require from about 20 years as a minimum to perhaps 50
years as a maximum.
3. Putting into effect on the ground the best available systems of
grazing, including deferred and rotation grazing, continual moderate
grazing, and alternate grazing, which are described in more detail
elsewhere in the report. The use of these systems is required in both
restoration and subsequent maintenance, as are also all of the follow-
ing lines of action.
Such systems are in effect on about 80 percent of the national-
forest ranges, possibly 40 or 45 percent of Indian lands, and 10 to 15
percent of private and State lands.
4. Adjustments of seasons of grazing to safeguard forage plant
vigor and prevent damage to the soil.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 43
Such seasonal adjustments have been made on at least 85 percent
of the national-forest ranges and seasonal use is probably satisfactory
on one-third to one-half of other ownerships.
5. Insuring the use of each range unit by the class of animals for
which it is best suited. Where the wrong class of stock is grazed,
especial care in stocking and management will be required. On pub-
lic lands, at least, the proper balance between livestock and game
is necessary.
About 80 percent of the national-forest ranges are grazed with
the proper class of livestock, but information on other ownerships
is not available. This phase of management will be increasingly
important as the need for greater efficiency in the use of available
forage is recognized.
6. Employment of all practical means such as salt control, water
development, herding, and in some cases fencing, to obtain the closest
practical approach to even distribution of stock over the range and
to reduce livestock handling costs.
Such means are in effect in varying degrees on a rather high per-
centage of national-forest ranges, on possibly half the private ranges,
and on still lower percentages of other ownerships.
7. The preparation and use of practical range management plans,
which for most private owners can be very simple. For the private
owner, public assistance in their preparation should be made avail-
able through extension services.
Serviceable range management plans have been prepared for ap-
proximately 82 percent of the national-forest ranges and intensive
plans for 48 million acres. Nearly 57 million acres, including inter-
mingled lands, still need range surveys as a prerequisite for fully
satisfactory plans. General plans have also been prepared or are
in preparation for all Indian range lands, but 28 million acres re-
quire range surveys for intensive plans. Nearly 150 million acres
of grazing districts and other Federal range lands will need surveys
for management plans. Many private owners have sketchy plans
for handling their ranges but only a small percentage have devel-
oped and applied plans adequate to prevent deterioration and in-
sure rehabilitation of depleted ranges.
8. Animal husbandry is an essential part of the livestock enter-
prise. Despite rather marked progress, there is still room for im-
provement. Better practices such as the use of high-quality sires,
limited breeding seasons, the culling of aged cows and ewes, supple-
mental feeding designed to offset mineral deficiencies in range feed,
etc., should increase calf and lamb crops, improve the quality of the
animals, and increase the prices received. Owners should then be
able to obtain the same or greater income from smaller herds and to
graze their ranges more conservatively.
FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION
For satisfactory watershed protection, a range service at least
equal in value to that for livestock grazing, the following additional
provisions are necessary :
1. If some necessary precautions are taken, restoration, and main-
tenance of plant cover adequate to meet watershed requirements
satisfactorily on most ranges is possible under grazing.
44 THE WESTERN
2. On approximately 135 million acres of depleted range, accord-
ing to the best information available, more conservative utilization
or greater care in the use of grazing systems, in seasonal use, etc.,
than that necessary to restore and maintain forage will be required.
3. In some instances, such as seriously eroding areas on the water-
sheds of important streams, temporary closure to all grazing will
be necessary in the public interest. Perhaps 50 million acres may
be involved since this will include the 38 million acres requiring arti-
ficial revegetation.
4. Small critical range areas, perhaps not to exceed 5 percent of
the total range area, will require special erosion-control measures.
The exact conditions under which the cheaper and more practical
means of natural revegetation must be supplemented by special
measures is uncertain, and the most effective measures and what
they will cost, are still in an experimental stage.
5. Limited areas, such as municipal watersheds, and those of irri-
gation reservoirs where the plant cover is on a hair-trigger balance
because of adverse conditions, will need to be closed permanently to
grazing. A total of about 11.5 million acres fall into this category.
FOR TIMBER PRODUCTION
Included in the range area is about 78 million acres of forest land
capable of producing commercial timber crops. Nearly 90 percent
is in national forest and private ownership. Under proper man-
agement livestock can ordinarily be grazed without jeopardizing
the more profitable use for timber growing.
An additional 76 million acres classified as range lands in this
report contains forests which will not grow commercial timber
products. Here, ordinarily, the choice of dominant use will be
between grazing and watershed protection.
FOR WILDLIFE
1. The primary requirement for wildlife is the nearest feasible
approach to natural environmental conditions through halting fur-
ther range deterioration, and through restoration and maintenance.
Along with this must go clear-cut recognition of the fact that wild-
life is a product of the land and can satisfactorily be produced only
as a crop.
2. If properly managed the wildlife resource need not, except on
limited areas, conflict seriously with the use of the range for other
purposes. For big game animals and waterfowl, exclusive use may
be required of only relatively limited areas of range land, in addi-
tion to the 2.8 million acres already reserved in the national forests,
and areas acquired by the Biological Survey for migratory bird
refuges and other wildlife preservation.
3. The strengthening of the basis for cooperation between the
Federal Government and the States is a badly needed initial step
in the handling of game on Federally owned lands.
4. Beyond this, the development of a coordinated administration
of wildlife on all lands regardless of ownership is necessary.
5. The working out of some way to retain hunting and fishing
privileges for the average man, which the American sportsman re-
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 45
gards as a birthright, is an increasing challenge, as is also some
incentive to private landowners to produce and protect game.
6. Other -considerations include —
(a) Recognition of the need for wildlife management plans and
provision for actual preparation.
(b) Selection of the personnel in game administration agencies
by the merit system rather than by political preference. This neces-
sarily includes the recognition of wildlife management as a
profession.
(c) Provision for needed refuges and sanctuaries.
(d) The ironing out of difficulties in licensing and law enforce-
ment.
(e) Provision for the artificial planting of game where needed
and feasible.
FOR RECREATION
1. Recognition of the inspirational, social, and economic value of
recreation, taking into account its phenomenal recent and probable
future growth.
2. Recognition of the fact that range lands have an important
recreational function although it is seldom their dominant use.
3. Careful planning, which under most conditions will make pos-
sible full recreational use without undue restriction of either live-
stock use or that by wildlife.
4. Such local adjustments in grazing use as may be necessary.
5. The cash value of recreation in which livestock producers
share is an important factor offsetting possible losses. The western
"dude ranch" is an example of direct returns, but community returns
benefit livestock producers indirectly.
FOR PRIVATE LANDS AND LIVESTOCK
Three hundred seventy-six million acres of western range land is
in private ownership. During a few decades, livestock grazing has
depleted this area by 51 percent; 85 percent or about 318 million
acres is still going down; more than 15 million acres will require
artificial revegetation ; only about 12 percent or 44 million acres is
in good or fairly satisfactory condition.
The magnitude of the private -land problem in area, in estimated
present grazing capacity, and in potential grazing capacity 50 years
hence, is shown graphically in figure 19 in comparison with public
holdings.
The lines of action involving privately^ owned lands and livestock,
which have been designated of greatest immediate urgency and im-
portance in an affirmative program, should be repeated in order to
bring the provisions which follow into sharper focus; to relieve
private owners of lands which they cannot carry and redeem the
responsibilities of stewardship, reverse the process of forage and soil
depletion by reducing overstocking and placing all lands under man-
agement for their highest forms of use, restore cheap range feed,
balance range and cropland use, and to build up economic units and
minimize or remove other financial handicaps.
The private ownership of land is so ingrained in our national
philosophy that the obvious action called for on range lands is to
46
THE WESTEEN RANGE
afford to private owners the most favorable possible opportunity to
hold all lands which are above the submarginal line, or which do
not have a special public interest. This more specifically requires
combined private and public action to remove or at least to mini-
mize the handicaps which have served to make private ownership
precarious under all but the most favorable conditions.
Range lands which, because of low inherent productivity and high
ownership costs, are clearly submarginal for private ownership, or
which have high public values involving expenditures beyond pri-
OWNERSHIP
GRAZING CAPACITY
Federal
National Forests
Public Domain,
Grazing Distfe.etc.
Indian Lands
State and County.
All Public
Private....
400 300 200 100 0
MILLION ACRES
Available
Range Area
Present Grazing
Capacity
2 4 6 8 10
MILLION ANIMAL UNITS
.rrn Potential Grazing
•ml Capacity (SOyears)
FIGURE 19.— GRAZING CAPACITIES, PRESENT AND POTENTIAL, BY OWNERSHIPS.
Privately owned lands comprise only slightly more than half the range area, but have
more than double the present potential grazing capacity of public lands. Such
public lands as national forests, the grazing districts, and the public domain are
much more important than either acreage or grazing capacity alone indicates, the
national forests because of the shortage of summer range and the grazing districts
because of the shortage of winter range. Furthermore, these public holdings are the
largest areas under single forms of control. Private ownership is not the simple,
compact entity that the diagram indicates, but is made up of several hundred
thousand ranch, corporate, and other holdings. The transfer of any such area as 125
million acres from private to public ownership will make significant changes in the
relationships shown.
vate means fall into an entirely different category. The ways in
which private owners may be relieved of the burden of carrying
such lands, which total about one-third of those now privately held,
are discussed later. Under the most favorable conditions which can
now be foreseen, many years will be required for such a transfer.
While nominally the following discussion covers the entire area in
private ownership, it deals primarily in fact with the lands above
the marginal line and without high public value which will remain
permanently in such ownership. But it must be recognized that the
submarginal and high public value lands will constitute a particu-
larly acute problem prior to transfer.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 47
The universal private ownership of domestic livestock, large
numbers of which graze on public lands, broadens the problems of
the stockman far beyond his own land holdings and increases the
public responsibility for the welfare of the livestock industry.
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STEWARDSHIP
For reasons already outlined, the private owner's responsibility
for the stewardship of land is a concept conspicuous largely by its
absence in the United States. Ownership has been regarded as
carrying the right of unrestricted use even though it meant de-
struction and even though the evil consequences of destruction did
not stop with the owner but extended to the public and to posterity.
Basic to the restoration and conservation of the range resource is
the recognition of an entirely different philosophy: that ownership
carries with it the obligation and responsibility for preservation,
which the owner owes to himself, to his descendents, and to the
public.
Satisfactory recognition and practical application can be obtained
only by the fullest cooperation of private and public agencies in
such ways as: (1) Local regulatory laws on the use of land; (2)
framing and adoption of land policies; (3) land zoning and plan-
ning; and (4) various other measures outlined in more detail in
the following.
Information is already available on simple practical systems of
range management and the handling of stock on open ranges which
will permit vast improvement over existing practices, and which
should increase the financial returns of the stockman and at the
same time restore and perpetuate his basic resource. Although ani-
mal-husbandry practices are far in advance of range management
on private lands, there is still room for improvement.
Involved are:
1. The recognition of cheap range feed as the outstanding com-
petitive advantage of the western stockman.
2. The recognition of overstocking followed by the necessary re-
ductions, which from the information now available for privately
owned ranges as a whole will have to be about 38 percent (figs. 20
and 21).
3. The application of sound systems of management and handling
of livestock on the range. This and the preceding should stop de-
pletion and start recovery on the 318 million acres which are still
deteriorating.
4. Artificial revegetation on 15 million acres.
5. Water development, fencing, and other improvements, rodent
control, etc., as a basis for range improvement and better use of
the range.
6. Simple, practical range management plans based on actual
conditions — in essence, carefully considered planwise efforts to raise
the standards of handling all ranges.
7. Better animal-husbandry practices, such as breeding, culling,
supplemental feeding, etc.
48
THE WESTEKN RANGE
The private operator has both an opportunity and an obligation
to put such measures into effect individually or through cooperative
associations.
Present
Grazing
Capacity
Livestock
on Range
369
MILLION ANIMAL UNITS
FIGURE 20.— EXCESSIVE STOCKING ON PRIVATE RANGES.
One of the most crucial and immediate problems on privately owned range lands is the
reduction of excess stocking, estimated at about 4.5 million animal units. No other
single form of action will do more to stop deterioration and start the ranges on the
upgrade.
The public can make a large contribution by conducting research
and giving advice and assistance through extension agencies in
accordance with the plan followed in crop agriculture.
CLASS OF
OWNERSHIP
EXCESS STOCKING
National Forests
Indian Lands__
Private
Public Domain,
Grazing Dist's.etc.
State and County
40 60
PERCENT
80
100
FlGUEB 21.— PERCENT OF EXCESS STOCKING BY OWNERSHIPS.
Except on the national forests, the removal of excess stock is a critical problem. Even
on the national forests, where the excess is relatively small, the problem will be
difficult.
Where large cash outlays are required for revegetation, erosion
control, range improvements, etc., public assistance might take the
form of doing a part of the work or of subsidies provided, in view
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 49
of the recent A. A. A. Supreme Court decision, they can be made
conditional upon requirements for improved range practices, or
provided some other effective means can be worked out.
The Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act may provide
a means for aiding both private and public owners to restore and
maintain the soil and range resource. Any payments to private
owners or tenants, or to the permittees on public ranges, which may
be made under this act, should among other things be conditional
upon livestock reductions to the grazing capacity of the range, and
upon such other requirements as satisfactory systems of range
management, proper seasonal use, etc.
Among the responsibilities of stewardship carried with private
ownership of land is watershed protection. The major part of
watershed responsibilities for especially hazardous conditions must,
however, be borne by the public.
About 25 million acres of privately owned forest land capable of
growing commercial timber is valuable also and available for graz-
ing. On such lands higher returns can ordinarily be obtained from
timber growing, and consequently it will be in the self-interest of
the owner to make timber growing the dominant purpose of manage-
ment. Timber returns can usually, however, be supplemented by
those from livestock grazing.
For the production of game some form of compensation to the
private owner will be necessary, either by sportsmen's associations
or. the States. Precedents exist in several States.
RECONSTRUCTION OF ECONOMIC UNITS
As a result of factors already discussed, including unsuitable land
policies, large numbers of land units in the West are uneconomic
from the standpoint of supporting families under reasonable stand-
ards of living, and hence socially undesirable. Such units fall into
three classes: (1) Undersized cash-crop livestock units; (2) under-
sized livestock units; (3) oversized livestock units.
Sound economic units will vary within wide limits because of
radically different regional and local conditions and the differences
in individual enterprises. The formulation of guiding principles for
working out such units constitutes an exceedingly complex and diffi-
cult problem, and the application will be even more difficult and time
consuming.
The tendency already begun to build units up to economic size
should be encouraged. Provision will have to be made, however,
for the resettlement on irrigation projects or otherwise of people who
are eliminated.
The tendency for oversized units to break down should be en-
couraged and this should help to take care of excess population
eliminated in building up small units.
The size of satisfactory units may under some conditions be held
down by a greater diversification of crops and at the same time a
more stable agriculture assured. The building up of range pro-
ductivity should also be a factor, in holding down the size of satis-
factory range units.
The addition to the already large area of public range land of
about one-third of the land now privately held will accentuate the
64946—36 5
50 THE WESTERN RANGE
place which the use of public lands must fill in economic units. The
availability of public lands will reduce the size for private units.
It must be recognized, however, that the total area of range land is
not large enough to meet all requirements, that practically all ranges
are already badly overstocked, and that the soundest use of public
range will be to build up economic units and not to perpetuate
uneconomic units.
The availability of public ranges on the national forests, grazing
districts, and State lands should afford an opportunity for labor to
supplement income and hence to reduce the size of private units
which would otherwise be necessary.
Despite the fact that up to the present economic units have not
insured satisfactory handling of the range, they do, theoretically
at least, constitute an essential basis for stabilizing private ownership
and insuring economic security, and should accordingly receive
corresponding attention.
INFLATED LAND VALUES
Both owners and their creditors must be prepared to accept defla-
tion of range-land prices to actual values, and public agencies can
render material aid by placing credit on a sound basis. Authorita-
tive information on values, obtained by research, should be invalu-
able as a guide.
PRODUCTION CONTROL
The excess of annual exports over imports in "meat and meat
products" dropped by more than 80 percent, to $49,000,000, between
the 4-year period ending June 30, 1926, and that ending June 30,
1935. Net imports of "wool and mohair" decreased by nearly 90
percent, to $15,000,000 for the same periods.
These changes reflect both a decreasing export market and chang-
ing requirements at home. Stockmen no longer have the advantage
of a continuously expanding domestic market.
Manufacturers can rather easily restrict their output to demands,
but because of the nature of the enterprise similar action by livestock
producers is much more difficult. Some means of avoiding unman-
ageable surpluses will undoubtedly be desirable in the interest of the
producer and consumer alike.
MARKETS
To overcome marketing handicaps producers have in their own
hands such means as cooperative associations and the uniform grad-
ing of their products. The public can continue to assist by encour-
aging cooperative marketing ; by studying such questions as distribu-
tion, marketing differentials, the demands of the trade, etc., and
making the information available; and by preventing combinations
in restraint of trade and unfair practices prejudicial to the livestock
producer.
CREDIT
The prime needs in the credit situation are to adapt credits to the
requirements of the livestock industry, as to period of loans and
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS
51
rate of interest, to base loans on the productivity of both the range
resource and livestock as collateral, and to couple with loans the
requirement that the range resource be maintained.
More favorable and satisfactory public credit facilities are rapidly
being developed under the Farm Credit Administration.
TAXATION
Much more exact information is required before any great im-
provement in the taxation system can be expected. While the task
of obtaining such information is a public obligation, the livestock
industry can encourage such undertakings.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
Both research and extension are primarily public responsibilities,
but should be encouraged by the livestock interests. The program
needed is outlined hereafter.
IN PUBLIC LAND ADMINISTRATION
Exclusive of that proposed for Federal and State acquisition, the
areas of publicly owned or controlled range land with which the
following program deals are summarized in table 4.
TABLE 4. — Area* of publicly owned range lands
Ownership or control
Range area
Available
range
Federal:
National forests
Acres
88, 000, 000
Acres
82, 500, 000
Grazing districts
i 65 500 000
'60,600,000
Public domain
1 96, 700, 000
» 67, 200, 000
Other
23 000 000
21 600 000
Indian lands . .
48, 400, 000
48, 400, 000
State, county, etc
65 500 000
65 100 000
1 Gross area.
1 Also total range area.
Here again, despite repetition, the action of greatest immediate
urgency and importance should be restated in order to obtain the
proper emphasis on the various provisions of the public range land
program proposed : To transfer jurisdiction to agricultural agencies
in order to obtain effective correlation and administration; place
all remaining lands under administration in order to reduce exces-
sive stocking, get ranges under management, arid reverse forage and
soil depletion processes; in administration and management, to fol-
low the multiple-use principle, obtain a sound distribution of the
grazing privilege, and avoid prescriptive rights; consolidate hold-
ings into efficient administrative units ; relieve private owners of the
lands they cannot carry, by purchase or acceptance of gifts ; rectify
the chaotic tax-delinquency situation; and use public lands as an
affirmative means to social and economic security.
52 THE WESTERN KANGE
FEDERAL, RANGE LAND JURISDICTION
One of the most urgent problems confronting the administration
of the Federal range lands is that of jurisdiction. The 82.5 mil-
lion acres of available range in the national forests is administered
by the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture, but the 60.6
million acres already in grazing districts is administered by the
Grazing Division in the Department of the Interior. The latter
Department is also responsible for the 67.2 million acres in the pub-
lic domain which have not been placed under administration.
Some fundamental differences in national forest, and grazing dis-
trict and public-domain lands, as well as some fundamental similari-
ties, must be recognized. The national forests contain important
timber, watershed, wildlife, and recreational resources which are
intermingled with and cannot be segregated from the range resource.
The grazing districts, the public domain, and various other un-
managed Federal withdrawals are largely arid or semiarid lands
valuable primarily for grazing, but in part having very high water-
shed values and also values for wildlife and recreation.
Because of the fundamental differences, the territorial integrity of
both classes of units should be maintained. But some boundary ad-
justments are needed to place in each the resources it is designed
primarily to conserve, to round out natural topographic units, and
to simplify administration.
Because of the fundamental similarities, the range administra-
tion of both classes must be closely correlated. Both must be in-
tegrated with ranch and farm lands, and in many cases with the
same lands. Large numbers of livestock, and game in some in-
stances, are dependent on the national forests for summer range
and the grazing districts for winter range. The grazing districts
can relieve the shortage of spring-fall range on the national forests.
Some range improvements can serve both classes of land. Both can
benefit by an interchange of supervisory and technical services and
information.
Having to deal with two entirely distinct personnel groups in two
Departments on different phases of a single problem creates an im-
possible situation for the user. Policies, procedure, legislation, point
of view, and basic theories which should be consistent are bound to
differ.
Practical experience shows conclusively that misunderstandings,
conflicts, and jurisdictional disputes, all of which reduce efficiency
and public service, are bound to arise. Stockmen are placed in a
position in which the easiest way out may seem to be to play one
department against the other, often to their own detriment and that
of the resource.
Finally the ultimate cost to the public of separate departmental
jurisdiction, assuming thoroughly efficient administration, and tak-
ing duplication of effort and field and overhead organizations, etc.,
into account, will certainly be higher. In short, there seems to las no
justification whatever for splitting jurisdiction between two depart-
ments.
A decision on the most logical and effective jurisdiction should
take the following factors into account :
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 53
The management of range and also of forest lands is agriculture
pure and simple. It deals with the soil, the interrelation of soil and
plant cover, water and climate, with plants and animals, the dis-
eases and insects affecting both, with the maintenance of biological
balances between plant and animal life, with the growing and har-
vesting or utilization of crops, in fact, with all of the "problems
relating to the growth from the soil." It deals with the economic
and social as well as the biological problems of land use in all of
their phases. It must rest upon the biological and economic sciences
which have to do with soil, water, climate, plants, animals, and land.
The forage on public ranges is used by livestock from the farms
and ranches, which are fed increasingly on farm forage crops. West-
ern crops are largely dependent on irrigation water from forest and
range watersheds. The use of the public range and forest land and
private range and farm land is interrelated in innumerable other
ways.
The Department of Agriculture, as one of its major projects, is
attempting to meet the Federal obligation to help agriculture
develop a sound program. In this undertaking the problems of the
public range and forest lands cannot be separated from those of
other range and crop lands.
Nearly all the Federal bureaus charged with research and admin-
istration relating directly and vitally to forestry and range man-
agement and to the development of a land-use program are in the
Department of Agriculture (fig. 84). It is the duly constituted and
authorized Federal agency for dealing with the agriculturist. It
works in close cooperation with the State agricultural colleges, ex-
periment stations, and extension services.
The Department of Agriculture is, therefore, the logical and, in
fact, the only well-equipped department for the administration of
federally owned range and forest lands.
PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION
The principles which should govern the administration of all fed-
erally owned range lands, whether on the national forests or the
grazing districts, including the public domain and other Federal
withdrawals and reservations, are:
1. Management which will restore and maintain in perpetuity on
a sustained yield basis, and utilize, all of the resources of the land.
2. The correlated use of all the resources to obtain the highest
net public benefits.
3. The integration of the public-range resources with privately
owned crop and range lands to obtain the highest benefits from all of
the lands locally, regionally, and nationally.
4. An equitable distribution of the grazing privilege, based on
the highest net public benefits, to those who are dependent upon and
are entitled to use the range.
5. Readjustments of land ownership and use where needed and
justified to facilitate economical and efficient management and ad-
ministration of public range lands.
6. A decentralized administration qualified to settle local problems
in accordance with local requirements, and responsive to the advice
54 THE WESTERN RANGE
and assistance of local users to the extent consistent with the protec-
tion of the public interest — the antithesis of bureaucracy.
The application of these principles requires a far greater devel-
opment of research than has hitherto been possible, and the prompt
and full use of the findings. The purpose of enhancing private
opportunity on lands suitable for such ownership, and the still
broader purpose of insuring the greatest possible social and economic
stability of the dependent agricultural and other population, must
underlie the entire administration of the public range resource.
NATIONAL FORESTS
The principles outlined, with occasional minor modifications to
meet conditions, have been the basis for national forest administra-
tion for many years. The chief tasks of the future are :
years snouia maKe it possible lor tnese ranges to carry
20 percent more stock than the present grazing capacity of the range.
2. A strengthening of range management; including the prepara-
tion and use of intensive management plans on the 40 million acres
not now so covered and periodical revision when necessary ; seasonal
adjustments not satisfactorily solved on about 12 percent of range
allotments ; reseeding of about 780,000 acres ; other special treatment
for sore spots ; improvements such as water developments and fenc-
ing, rodent control, etc.
3. Improvement in the basis for the distribution of the grazing
privileges to insure a more effective tie with privately owned lands
and to afford greater security to the small private operation de-
pendent on and entitled to use public ranges.
4. Occasional changes for a better correlation of range uses.
Approximately half, or 43 million acres, of the national forest
range area is forest land capable of producing commercial timber.
On such lands timber production will have to be the dominant use
because of the provisions of organic legislation and the general
purposes for which the national forests were created. Grazing use
will generally be possible but will have to be made contingent upon
the protection of forest growth and continuous forest production.
About 22 million acres additional is noncommercial forest in which
the correlation required will be between livestock grazing and water-
shed protection.
Since organic national forest legislation provides for "maintain-
ing favorable conditions of water flow" the handling of livestock
grazing must insure watershed protection. On relatively limited
areas special erosion-control measures are required.
GRAZING DISTRICTS, PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND OTHER FEDERAL
Practically the entire problem of placing the grazing districts and
public domain under management lies ahead. The complexity and
difficulty of the task is accentuated by the existing depletion of
nearly 70 percent, by the fact that 93 percent is still on the down
grade, by long-established traditions of use, by an extremely involved
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 55
ownership pattern in some regions, and by private holdings of key
areas in others.
To carry out such an essential measure as placing the remaining
half of the public domain under administration and to insure
permanence will require the modification of existing legislation.
To carry out other essential measures — such as an equitable dis-
tribution of grazing privileges; the reduction of stocking, which
now exceeds grazing capacity by 43 percent (fig. 21), to insure co-
ordinated use of all the range resources; to avoid the establishment
of prescriptive rights; and to avoid a conflict between Federal and
State authority — will require exceptionally favorable interpretation
of the Grazing Act in the public interest, and probably also its
modification.
In addition to the reduction of stocking, essentials in the field of
technical management include putting sound systems of range man-
agement into effect, making adjustments in seasonal use, artificial
restoration on at least 18 million acres, the control of erosion on
many millions of acres, surveys, preparation and putting manage-
ment plans into effect for the entire area, and a large improve-
ment program designed to aid technical management.
The measures proposed should increase the present grazing ca-
pacity of the grazing district-public domain range by 76 percent
in 50 years. Or putting it in another way, 50 years' effort will be
necessary to build the range up to the point where it can carry
safely the livestock now being grazed.
Some provision should be made for the administration and man-
agement of the 21.6 million acres of available range on other reserva-
tions and withdrawals, preferably by the Secretary of Agriculture
with the concurrence of the Secretary of primary jurisdiction.
Definite provision is necessary also to prevent further alienation
of Federal lands unsuitable for private ownership. One prerequi-
site for transfer should be classification by the Department of Agri-
culture, which should appraise not only the suitability of the land
for private ownership but also the size of the unit required.
INDIAN LANDS
The primary objective in range management on 48 million acres of
Indian owned but federally controlled range land is the social and
economic advancement and security of the Indians.
The major and most pressing task is the rehabilitation of de-
pleted ranges. For all Indian lands an estimated reduction in
stocking averaging 26 percent is required to reach grazing capacity
(fig. 21), and a still higjier reduction is necessary on the half of
the Indian grazing land in the Southwest where the depletion is
worst.
This is a difficult situation, for unless depletion is stopped the
Indians face ruin through the loss of one of their most important
resources, but drastic livestock reductions will create another difficult
problem. Removal of white-owned livestock, more equitable dis-
tribution of grazing privileges among the Indians, the purchase of
additional range, the initiation of work projects, and the develop-
ment of supplemental industries are possible shock absorbers.
56 THE WESTEKN KANGE
Reductions in stocking must be accompanied by other improve-
ments in range management, removal of worthless horses, rodent
control, special erosion control, and artificial revegetation.
The consummation of the program proposed will, it is estimated,
permit the grazing of about 13 percent more livestock 50 years
hence than are now grazed.
STATE AND COUNTY LANDS
State and county range lands, aggregating some 66 million acres,
fall into two general classes.
The first is the remnant of Federal grants to States designed to
produce revenue for schools and other institutions. In the main
these lands have been leased without control to obtain maximum
current revenue and as a result have been depleted by 49 percent,
and 88 percent of the total area is still on the downgrade.
The difficulty of the problem that the States face in these lands
should not be minimized. The policy so far followed will ulti-
mately defeat the purpose of the grants unless ways and means
are developed to restore and conserve the resources which give the
lands their value. In some instances already the ranges have been
depreciated so far that they can no longer be leased. While con-
stitutional and other limitations have been a factor, the very fact
that these lands have not already been sold is an indication that a
substantial part is submarginal for private ownership and should
be retained by the public.
The other horn of the dilemma is that the State institutions are
dependent in varjdng degree upon the receipts, and the range can-
not be restored and administered without expenditures which may
equal the receipts. The soundest course in the long run will prob-
ably be to restore and maintain the resource, making what other
provision may be necessary for the institutions.
The second class is made up of private lands which have reverted
to the States or counties through tax delinquency. That the total
area is large is certain, but its exact extent is unknown. Much
tax-delinquent land is still in a twilight zone between private and
public ownership. Without doubt submarginality for private own-
ership is a primary cause. Depletion is also a primary cause be-
cause it has reduced the productive capacity of the lands and hence
the returns from them. The combined depression and drought has
hit hardest the poor and depleted lands and uneconomic units.
To meet the increasingly serious problem created by this "new
public domain" a revolutionary change in policy in most if not all
States is required. Only those lands above the marginal line on
which the private owner has a chance for success, and those without
high public values, should be returned to private ownership. Those
below and those with high public values should be retained under
public control. A differentiation can be worked out by such means
as classification or zoning. On tax-reverted lands the problems of
restoration and management are identical with those on institutional
lands.
Except for possible minor modifications the principles which
should govern management and administration are the same as those
for Federal lands. A primary consideration will necessarily have
THE MAJOE RANGE PROBLEMS 57
to be, as for Federal lands, the placing of responsibility for a purely
agricultural function in agricultural agencies. Widely scattered
small units will require consolidations through exchanges or other-
wise. Stocking should be reduced to what the range can safely
carry (fig. 21). State and Federal cooperation may be helpful in
some instances.
PUBLIC ACQUISITION
A program has been outlined, having as its objective the keeping
of private ownership as fully in the range picture as reasonable
financial returns permit, by the removal of existing handicaps and
the solution of existing problems.
The swing from public to private ownership has gone so far,
however, that the maximum feasible self-help by private owners
supplemented by everything that the public can reasonably be ex-
pected to contribute will still leave a major problem on a part of the
376 million acres of range land now privately owned. The classes
of land involved are :
1. Approximately 15 million acres of range land on which the
dry-farming effort has clearly failed, and on which private owner-
ship now seems to be at the end of its rope. Failure has led to tax
delinquency, abandonment, excessive relief rolls, and a long train
of other adverse social and economic consequences. Unless artificial
revegetation costing from $3 to $3.50 per acre is resorted to, nat-
ural processes will not restore the forage cover for years or even
decades. The cost of revegetation or the alternative of protracted
holding of unproductive land are both beyond the capacity of the
private owner. Some other constructive action is therefore called
for on what was, and is potentially, some of the best or most needed
western range.
2. Range lands submarginal for private ownership, because of low
or uncertain forage productivity, excessive depletion and slow re-
covery, high ownership costs such as investments required, improve-
ments, taxes, etc. Low productivity and high costs are both accen-
tuated by marketing costs, which are very high for all of the far
western range States except California, in comparison with those
of the Middle Western States. Taking all factors into account, the
tall-grass prairies and the short-grass plains east of the Rockies
offer the most favorable opportunities for private ownership, and the
salt-desert shrub and southern desert shrub of the Intermpuntain
and Southwest regions the least favorable. The best approximation
which can now be made places 113 million acres of this category in
the problem class.
3. Coinciding closely with the submarginal land area is a large
area of range lands having high public values for watershed pro-
tection. The constructive management of these lands is a critical
watershed problem, and because of the cost of the range restoration,
restricted grazing, and other special erosion-control measures re-
quired, from many of which the public rather than the private owner
will benefit, it is difficult if not impossible to hold them under pri-
vate ownership. The total area of such watershed lands is about
118 million acres. It includes about 107 million acres of more or
less seriously eroding land contributing silt to important western
streams.
58 THE WESTERN EANGE
4. In the high public-value class are also about 6 million acres
of privately owned range land needed in part for wildlife. These
areas are widely scattered and are required to provide for such spe-
cific wildlife needs as winter ranges for deer and elk herds which
summer in the national forests. These areas fall almost entirely
within the two preceding classes.
5. Within and adjacent to the national forests are about 18.9 mil-
lion acres of private range land, in part forested, which are needed
to round out administrative units or for other administrative pur-
poses and which should be acquired by the Federal Government.
Some of these lands are probably also submarginal for private
ownership.
Except for a small part of the land area discussed above, justifica-
tion for public ownership depends upon more than one considera-
tion. Submarginality for the greater part of the area is, for exam-
ple, accentuated by high public watershed values. After making the
necessary adjustments for the overlapping of the various classes,
the area which should be taken over by the public totals on a very
conservative basis about 125 million acres, or one-third of the range
land now in private ownership.
Outright subsidies to hold submarginal and special public-interest
lands in private ownership are very difficult to justify. For much
of the area involved they would constitute a perpetual drain on the
public treasuries, and for the private owner would merely postpone
the day of final reckoning. Other possible alternatives which should
be considered for the solution of this problem are very limited.
Legal regulation of private range lands, and particularly those
of the classes described, encounters the difficulty that improvements
in land conditions through better husbandry would cost money,
while even with past husbandry the cards have been stacked against
the private owner. Furthermore, regulation would be seriously
handicapped unless it were supported by the large majority of own-
ers, which is far from being the case.
The only additional alternatives seem to be public acquisition of
the land by tax delinquency, by gift, or by purchase.
Although the record of both Federal and State management of
range lands is spotty, the possibilities of constructive management
have been shown on the national forests and some progress has been
made on Indian lands. Even without the suggested acquisition pro-
gram both the Federal Government and the States have large un-
solved problems of range administration.
Since public acquisition in one form or another strikes directly
at the problems of what to do with lands submarginal for private
ownership and of those having high public values, it seems the only
possible course, despite the problems for which public agencies still
have to redeem their responsibilities, the long time which will be re-
quired for the consummation of the program, and the cost.
Acquisition by tax delinquency means letting the situation work
itself out gradually through the play of economic forces. This plan
has obvious advantages, and regardless of other action will have a
place in the solution, but against the advantages must be weighed
further depletion of the range resource, losses from the lack of
watershed protection, and even more important, an appalling human
wastage.
THE MAJOE RANGE PROBLEMS 59
It is quite possible that considerable areas might be given outright
to either the Federal Government or the States if the way were
paved. Further inducements might be authority to pay an equitable
proportion of accrued taxes, or the privilege of free use of the range
under proper control for a limited number of years.
For much of the area, however, the only recourse will probably
be outright purchase.
The transfer of large areas to Federal ownership will require suit-
able provision for payments to States and counties in lieu of taxes.
Similar provision for counties will be necessary for lands acquired
by the States.
This report is a first attempt to appraise the nature and extent of
the various widespread and apparent fundamental maladjustments
in ownership and in the kind of use of range lands and the remedies
for them. The conclusions on the desirable or required shifts in
ownership are necessarily approximations. A large amount of de-
tailed study covering the entire range territory will be required to
work out exact areas, locations, etc. Such detailed work is essential
also to determine an equitable division of responsibility between the
States and the Federal Government for which the data now available
does not Justify even an approximation.
One thing is clear, that the job of range-land acquisition is large
and that it is essential in the public interest. A reasonable start is
justified, even though the size of the job is not known with accuracy
and though a division between the States and the Federal Govern-
ment remains to be worked out. Since both public action and inac-
tion have helped to create the problem, it is clearly up to the public
to initiate efforts for its solution.
IN RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
Lack of knowledge, the inevitable outcome of the belated begin-
ning of research and the small scale on which it has been conducted,
has been one of the most important contributing factors to rule-of-
thumb management of the range, and hence to practically universal
range depletion and to the social and economic maladjustments and
losses which have resulted. It is partly responsible for allowing
problems inherently difficult to drift until they have become so acute
that drastic remedial action is imperative to save a great natural
resource and the population that is based on it. The high cost of
the program of rehabilitation is in part the price which must now
be paid for a lack of knowledge. And ironically, the knowledge
must still in the main be acquired.
The only alternative choice to the long, slow, costly, and incon-
clusive working out of large-scale trial and error in acquiring knowl-
edge is research. Research, in fact, offers the cheapest and the only
practical basis for obtaining the information needed to bring about
the fullest productive use of range lands for livestock grazing, water-
shed protection, forest growth, recreation, and wildlife, and for a
sound correlation of these uses.
Research and the effort necessary to carry the results into applica-
tion are needed by private owners and equally by the administra-
tors of public lands. They offer one of the most effective forms of
public aid to the private owner.
60 THE WESTERN RANGE
The major lines of research required are:
1. Range management, to improve existing systems or to develop
new systems for handling each of the range types, and covering also
degree of stocking, seasonal use, class of stock, methods of handling
livestock under range conditions, restoration by natural revegeta-
tion and subsequent maintenance in a high state of productivity.
It must include all forms of use and service.
Basic to range management is the need for detailed information
on the characteristics, habits, requirements, value, etc., of individual
range plants; and also information on the characteristics, behavior,
competitive relationships, succession, soil, and other requirements,
etc., of the associations of range plants which form types.
2. Artificial revegetation, to develop quick, low-cost reseeding
and transplanting methods of restoring vegetation on the depleted
ranges for grazing and watershed and other purposes. For artificial
revegetation there is also the need to develop improved strains of
range plants or hybrids, and also to explore the possibility of foreign
introductions.
3. Watershed investigations, to determine methods of managing
the plant cover of range watersheds to prevent erosion, silting, and
floods, and assure the maximum supply of usable water. This in-
volves a clear understanding of the part that the cover in varying
degrees of composition, density, etc., and under different soil, topo-
graphic, climatic, grazing, and other conditions plays in erosion and
run-off. Practical special-control measures should also be developed
for use in arresting aggravated erosion as a preliminary to the re-
establishment of plant cover.
4. Wildlife, to develop basic principles and methods for restoring
environmental conditions and for managing the wildlife resource as
a crop, both in proper relation to other products and services of wild
lands. This necessitates also a full understanding of the life
histories, requirements, etc., of the wildlife species.
5. Animal husbandry, to improve or develop livestock strains es-
pecially adapted to range conditions and to market requirements,
and also better breeding and feeding methods.
6. Economics, to determine the proper place of western range
livestock production in the local, regional, and national picture ; the
most effective integration of range and crop agriculture; costs, re-
turns, profits, and other information needed for the determination
of satisfactory economic units and for the efficient handling of in-
dividual enterprises; a sound basis for the highest use of range
land for grazing or other purposes; a sound allocation between
private and public ownership and between the States and the Federal
Government; the basis needed for policies and administration of
public lands; and, in general, the basis for sound land use and for
social and economic security.
7. Additional investigations needed include climate, entomology,
etc.
The range research so far done will permit vast improvements over
nearly all existing practices so that there is no need for delaying
initial action on a constructive program. For the full consummation
of the program recommended, however, it is only a meager beginning.
THE MAJOR KANGE PEOBLEMS 61
The responsibility for range research rests with —
The Federal Government for work on interstate, regional, and
national problems, and on local problems for the administration of
Federally owned or controlled lands.
The States for work on local and State problems and on other
problems where the administration of State lands or those of minor
political subdivisions are concerned.
Endowed institutions have the opportunity for work on a wide
range of problems, and particularly those of a fundamental
character.
Private agencies, and associations in particular, have the oppor-
tunity to round out and supplement the work which other agencies
can do.
Past experience has shown that the most effective application of
the results of agricultural research can be obtained through extension.
In the range-animal husbandry field extension activities have been
partly responsible for marked improvements, but extension in range
management has been almost wholly neglected. Provision for re-
search fails in its real objective unless its results are made known
through extension in such a way that they can be applied by the
private owner. An essential feature is aid and advice in the prepa-
ration and carrying out of sound management plans.
IN LEGISLATION
Both Federal and State legislation will be required to carry out the
program recommended. The more important provisions are :
FEDERAL
PUBLIC DOMAIN AND GRAZING DISTRICTS
1. To transfer jurisdiction of the public domain and the grazing
districts from the Department of the Interior to the Department of
Agriculture.
2. Necessary or desirable modifications of the Grazing Act of June
28, 1934:
To place all of the public domain under permanent Federal man-
agement.
To prevent the establishment of prescriptive rights.
To allow the distribution of grazing privileges necessary for both
social and economic security to the greatest number entitled to use
the range.
To authorize administration of all range resources, forage, water-
shed, wildlife, in accordance with the multiple-use principle and for
the highest public benefits.
To clarify Federal authority in the administration of its own
lands.
To authorize the leasing of isolated tracts of Federal lands of less
than 640 acres.
To authorize the President, upon the recommendation of the Na-
tional Forest Reservation Commission, to transfer to the national
forests from the public domain or the grazing districts lands which
in the judgment of the Secretary of Agriculture meet national-forest
specifications.
62 THE WESTERN RANGE
3. Unless fully authorized, as on the Indian reservations, to pro-
vide for the administration of ranges on all other Federal reserva-
tions and withdrawals, where not inconsistent with their purposes,
by the Secretary of Agriculture with the concurrence of the Secre-
tary of primary jurisdiction.
THE TRANSFER OF PRIVATE LANDS TO FEDERAL OWNERSHIP
1. To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to transfer to national
forests or grazing districts, lands purchased by Federal agencies, if
they meet the qualifications for such unite.
2. To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to purchase range
lands submarginal for private ownership or needed for public benefits
such as watershed protection, upon approval of the National Forest
Keservation Commission, and to add them to national forests or
grazing districts.
3. To broaden existing authority so that the Secretary of Agri-
culture could make exchanges with private or other public owners
within or adjacent to national forests or grazing districts on the
basis of equal land or grazing values, in order to consolidate owner-
ships for more efficient administration, and also to pay costs of
transfer and an equitable part of unpaid taxes on donated lands.
TRANSFERS TO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
To provide for the classification by the Secretary of Agriculture of
Federal lands in the public domain as most suitable for private own-
ership, as a prerequisite for alienation, coupled with other provisions
as to maximum size of units, etc., which will prevent a repetition of
the mistakes of the past. More study will be necessary to afford a
satisfactory basis for such legislation.
EXTENSION
To provide for aid to private owners through extension in coopera-
tion with State agencies.
STATE
Legislation which will substitute for sale or other disposal to
private owners the retention and sustained yield management of
range lands now in State ownership or which may hereafter be
acquired, which are unsuitable for private ownership. This will
include :
1. Possible revision of State constitutions and Federal enabling
legislation.
2. The setting up of professionally qualified administrative
agencies.
3. The revision where necessary of tax-delinquency legislation.
4. Provision for consolidations through exchanges with private
owners and the Federal Government.
5. Provision for classification by competent agricultural agencies
as a prerequisite to passage to private ownership.
6. Provision for cooperation with the Federal Government on the
administration of intermingled holdings.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 63
7. Provision for the acquisition by gift or purchase and manage-
ment of lands submarginal for private ownership or having high
public values.
8. Provision for cooperative aid to private owners of range land,
in research and extension.
9. Authority to form cooperative range management associations.
10. Provision for the handling of wildlife: On a sustained crop-
management basis; with professionally trained organizations; under
flexible laws which outline principles but delegate authority to make
adjustments in administration necessary to meet rapidly changing
conditions; in cooperation with the Federal Government on Federal
lands; some reasonable incentive to private owners to protect and
produce wildlife on their lands.
COSTS AND RETURNS
The cost of carrying out any such constructive program as that
outlined for 728 million acres of range land will be high. Unfortu-
nately, postponement will only increase the final cost, because the
longer the destructive forces now in effect continue the more the
ground that must be regained. The cost will fall upon the Federal
Government, the States, and private owners.
The following estimates of cost are based on 30 years' experience
in the handling of the national forests and on special surveys con-
ducted on the public domain and on privately owned lands. The
estimates are for the amounts believed necessary to carry out the
program recommended. In the light of extended national forest
experience in which the rebuilding of the range resource has been
retarded by inadequate funds, it is not believed that the public
ranges, at least, can be restored and maintained for less than the
amounts stated. The estimates are given because of the conviction
that the public should have a full understanding of probable costs
before embarking on a much larger enterprise than that now under
way. No estimates have been made for special erosion control be-
cause of uncertainty as to the area which should receive special treat-
ment other than revegetation, and what such treatment would cost.
Special treatments are still in an early developmental stage.
The proposed expenditures fall into four categories — capital in-
vestments in improvements, current expenditures for administration,
the public acquisition of land, and research and extension.
NATIONAL FORESTS
Annual costs first 5-year period
Capital investments, including range surveys, fences, water develop-
ment, revegetation, rodent control, etc $1, 140, 000
Grazing administration on 82.5 million acres at $0.0149 per acre
(present cost $0.0089 per acre or $734,000) 1,234,000
Wildlife administration on 120 million acres at $0.006 per acre
(present cost $0.0018 per acre or $216,000) 720,000
Maintenance and replacement of improvements 742,000
Total annual cost 3, 836, 000
For the second 5-year period annual expenditures for capital in-
vestments would be reduced to $910,000 and for the maintenance and
64 THE WESTEKN RANGE
replacement of improvements increased to $986,000, making the total
annual cost $3,850,000.
GRAZING DISTRICTS, PUBLIC DOMAIN, AND OTHER FEDERAL
Annual costs first 5-year period
Capital investments, chiefly revegetation, 149.4 million acres $3, 536, 000
Grazing administration at $0.0151 per acre 2, 260, 000
Wildlife administration at $0.001 per acre 150, 000
Total annual cost 5, 946, 000
For the second 5-year period annual expenditures for capital in-
vestments would be reduced to $3,403,000, and for maintenance and
replacement of improvements would amount to $550,000, so that the
total annual cost would be $6,363,000.
INDIAN LANDS
Annual costs -first 5-year period
Capital investments, 48.4 million acres $766,000
Grazing administration, at $0.011 per acre (present cost $0.005 per
acre, or $242,000) .— __ 532,000
Wildlife administration, at $0.001 per acre 48,000
Maintenance and replacement of improvements , 75, 000
Total annual cost 1,421,000
For the second 5-year period annual expenditures for capital in-
vestments would be reduced to $532,000, and for maintenance and
replacement of improvements would be increased to $232,000, so
that the total annual cost would be $1,344,000.
STATE AND COUNTY LANDS
Annual costs first 5-year period
Capital investments, 65 million acres $1,313,000
Administration (minimum) 754, 000
Total annual cost . 2,067,000
During the second 5-year period, maintenance and replacement
of improvements would probably cost about $150,000 annually, mak-
ing the total annual cost $2,217,000.
PRIVATE LANDS
The annual capital investments needed during the first 10-year
period on the 376 million acres now in private ownership is esti-
mated at $6,416,000, of which the largest item is about $4,800,000 for
revegetation. Incidental labor will take care of a substantial part of
this cost, and furthermore it will be reduced by the rate and extent
that the public assumes the burden through acquisition of the poorer
private lands where costs of restoration, etc., would be highest.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 65
PUBLIC ACQUISITION OF PRIVATE LANDS
The acquisition of 125 million acres of submarginal watershed and
other high public-value land would require at least 20 years. Taking
into account gifts with or without payment of accrued taxes, tax
delinquency, and direct purchase, the cost might average $1 per acre,
or about $6,300,000 annually.
The annual cost of public administration is estimated at about
$0.015 per acre, to which should be added capital investments of
about $0.017 per acre annually during the first 10 years. The rate
at which total annual costs build up will be governed by the speed
of acquisition. The latter figures duplicate estimates already given
and will correspondingly reduce the expenditures by private owners.
The Federal and State shares of these costs will obviously depend
upon the division of the areas acquired between these agencies.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
To meet the requirements for all classes of range research it is
estimated that expenditures by all agencies should reach an annual
total of $2,750,000 in a 10-year period, this by gradual increases over
current expenditures of about $750,000. Of the former total the
Federal Government should assume the responsibility for about
$2,000,000 and the States for $550,000, leaving a $200,000 balance for
other agencies.
The cost of range extension estimated at $1,000.000 annually should
be borne about equally by the Federal Government and the States.
The estimated maximum cost should, if possible, be reached in about
10 years.
RETURNS
The high cost of rehabilitation and administration of publicly
owned range lands makes the possibility of self-liquidation a ques-
tion of both public and private interest.
Looking ahead, it is doubtful if the Federal Government can any
more than break even on any comprehensive program of range res-
toration and intensive management on the national forests and the
grazing districts, even though grazing fees on the national forests
were ultimately increased by about 30 percent above the base fees,
and those on the grazing districts were made approximately equal
to the national forest base fees.
Even then, account is taken neither of the uncertain cost of special
erosion-control measures nor of Federal contributions to States and
counties in lieu of taxes, which in a sense are the transfer of funds
from one public purse to another.
Grazing fees high enough on both the national forests and the
grazing districts to enable the Federal Government to break approxi-
mately even seem fully justified. Fully productive, well-managed
ranges should result in higher returns to the stockmen and justify
somewhat higher fees than those now charged on the national forests
and those apparently contemplated for the grazing districts.
Sight should not be lost of the fact, however, that the public
receives other tangible and intangible benefits from fully produc-
64946—36 6
66 THE WESTERN RANGE
tive ranges. Among the largest and most important of these are
the far-reaching benefits from watershed protection. Of great im-
portance also is the fact that range use can hardly be eliminated
from western agriculture without wrecking the entire structure.
Furthermore, range livestock production alone furnishes a liveli-
hood for a large number of people. Other benefits in which both
the Federal and State governments share are the sustained taxable
value of related lands, income and other taxes, and direct and in-
direct returns from hunting, fishing, and recreational use.
Essentially the same considerations hold on State range lands
as on Federal.
Despite radical readjustments and increased capital investments,
the program proposed should work out to the financial advantage
of the private owner. He should gradually be relieved of submar-
ginal and high public-value lands. His financial handicaps should
be reduced. He should have the advantage of an increasing volume
of cheap range feed, of increased unit livestock production, of de-
creased production costs, and of greater profits.
THE KEY TO KEMEDIAL ACTION
In the complex range pattern, with its multiplicity of interrelated
overlapping problems, which require a corresponding multiplicity
of interrelated overlapping remedial measures, a clear-cut focal
point— a center of responsibility — among public agencies is neces-
sary in planning, initiating, correlating, and consummating action
if public obligations are to be redeemed.
This is true of privately owned range lands and livestock, in
which the maximum of self-help ordinarily depends on some meas-
ure of public leadership and aid to create conditions under which
self-help can be effective or even start.
It is equally true of publicly owned range lands where, as already
shown, the splitting of jurisdiction of this agricultural problem
between different agencies almost inevitably means working at cross
purposes, inefficiency, and excessive costs. Furthermore, public
lands cannot be divorced from their surroundings. Such lands have
a direct and vital bearing on the ranch owner and his welfare and
must be handled in full recognition of this fact. This bearing ex-
tends far beyond private range lands and livestock to private crop-
lands, and to the entire agricultural structure.
A check of the broader groups of problems and their solution will
still further illustrate and emphasize this point of view.
Take for example the broad group of problems centering in the
reversal of the range and soil-depletion process, and requiring such
action as the removal of large numbers of excess stock.
Or take the equally broad group of ownership and use problems
requiring large shifts from private to public ownership, or range
restoration on mistakenly cropped lands, or the building of units of
economic size.
Or the large number of additional problems of private ownership
requiring the removal of financial handicaps or the recognition of
the responsibility of stewardship.
Or the problems already referred to involving lands now in public
ownership or those hereafter acquired.
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS 67
Or the problem of knowledge and its application, requiring range
and livestock and land-use research and extension.
Or those centering in human wastage in agricultural communi-
ties requiring action to insure social and economic security.
The lack of clear-cut centralized responsibility up to the present
time has undoubtedly contributed in a major way to the neglect and
abuse of the range resource. In far too many instances what has
been everyone's responsibility has been no one's responsibility. It
seems futile to continue an arrangement which has led to such re-
sults. Centralized responsibility affords the only way in which the
general public can hope to hold its agencies to a strict accountability.
Any consideration of Federal activities other than the jurisdiction
over Federal range lands — research, extension, general agricultural
integration, and aid in various other forms — make still more con-
clusive the fundamental soundness of the centralization of full Fed-
eral responsibility in the Department of Agriculture for an activity
which is agriculture to the core.
Within their spheres of action the States must face and meet sim-
ilar problems of responsibility and organization.
IS REMEDIAL ACTION WORTH WHILE?
The program outlined for the solution of the range problem runs
into very large sums of money which will constitute a heavy drain,
particularly on Federal and State treasuries. Large as they are,
these expenditures are only a part of the price which must be paid
for the wasteful use and destruction of a great natural resource.
Still another part of the price is the time over which the reconstruc-
tion effort must continue. It has taken little more than half a cen-
tury to reduce the productivity of the range by about half, and it
will probably take at least as long to bring it back to a grazing
capacity equivalent to present stocking. The cost will be a heavy
public burden, regardless of the possibility of direct returns that
in the long run may make the enterprise self -liquidating.
Is restoration worth while? This question should be raised and
squarely faced before a final decision is made. Perhaps the soundest
decision can be reached by contrasting what will happen if the effort
is not made, with the benefits if it is.
IP No ACTION Is TAKEN
If drastic and immediate action to restore the range resource is
not taken, it seems inevitable that depletion will continue. Whether
it continues more or less rapidly than in the past, the end result is
bound to be the same — the Great American Desert, once only a name,
will become that in fact. If anyone questions the inexorable work-
ing of the cause and effect he need only examine the history of the
semiarid pastoral countries of southwestern Asia and the Mediter-
ranean. The more precarious range types of the Southwest and In-
termountain region will merely be the first to qualify, but the other
and more favorable types are certain to follow sooner or later.
The gradual destruction of the basic forage and soil resource will
inevitably in time reach the point where the range livestock industry
can no longer exist, The range alone can furnish the cheap feed
68 THE WESTERN KANGE
which is the most important competitive advantage in livestock pro-
duction of all except one of the 11 far- western States. With the
elimination of the range must consequently go the gradual elimina-
tion of the western livestock industry itself.
Along with the industry must go its contribution to the meat,
wool, and hide, and other requirements of the country. The extent
to which this might make the United States dependent on foreign
supplies is uncertain, but there can be no question that it will place
us in a less favorable position in which to meet future emergency
requirements, such, for example, as that of the World War.
No distinction can be drawn between the dependence on the range
of livestock and of wildlife. The flood and erosion situation on de-
pleted ranges is rapidly becoming more and more serious, and this
tendency would certainly continue and its effect would become more
and more far reaching. Not least in importance will be reduction in
the effective life of the irrigation reservoirs which depend upon
watershed protection.
Crop agriculture is now so closely integrated with the use of the
range that it is almost certain to suffer in other ways than impaired
water supplies as range problems become more and more acute.
And whatever injures either or both will extend into communi-
ties, towns, and cities dependent upon a prosperous agriculture, and
affect supply services, banking, transportation, and in fact all other
industries which are a part of the existing western civilization.
Reduced tax returns will curtail essential public activities.
The social wastage growing out of range depletion and the various
maladjustments in the use of range lands has already been very
large, but is inconsequential in comparison with the wastage which
will be inevitable if any large part of the range is entirely destroyed.
THE BENEFITS FROM RESTORATIO:NT
An area of 728 million acres of restored and fully productive
range cannot be otherwise than a source of perpetual wealth.
The maintenance of this range area would, according to the best
information now available, carry at least 17.1 million animal units
of domestic livestock 50 years hence, as compared to the 17.3 million
units which are now rapidly depreciating the range, and the 10.8
million units which it can now carry in safety (fig. 22). The gain
in the value of livestock production between the present and poten-
tial grazing capacity would undoubtedly justify the entire annual
cost of restoration several times over.
Serious depletion was one of the primary causes of the 1934 Fed-
eral expenditure of $100,000,000 to purchase starving western-range
livestock. The elimination or the drastic reduction of such expendi-
tures, which range restoration should make possible, would make a
major contribution to the cost of the program recommended. From
the standpoint of broad public policy the choice lies between mere
alleviation by periodic repetition, leaving the basic problem un-
touched, and striking directly and constructively at a primary cause
in order to make such expenditures unnecessary in the future.
Erosion and destructive floods would gradually be reduced to a
minimum, and the life of irrigation and other reservoirs greatly ex-
tended. The reduction in the annual flood-damage bill alone would
THE MAJOR RANGE PROBLEMS
69
go a long way toward carrying the annual cost of a constructive
program. Wildlife could again assume a proper place among the
products of the range and make its contributions to western life.
Only by restoration is it possible to make the range contribute as
it should to working out a satisfactory balanced and hence a
permanently prosperous western agriculture. Sources of livelihood
now so badly needed with the passing of the frontier and the replace-
Present
Grazing Capacity-
Potential (SOyrs
Grazing Capacity!
Present
Stocking
Grazing Capacity
on Virgin Range__
5 10 15 20
MILLION ANIMAL UNITS
25
FIGURE 22.— PRESENT AND POTENTIAL GRAZING CAPACITY.
The present grazing capacity of the available range area, estimated at 10.8 million animal
units could, it is conservatively estimated, be increased to 17.1 million units in 50
years if the entire range area is placed under management in the immediate future.
But even this increase would fall 0.2 of a million units short of what stockmen are now
trying to carry on ranges whose productive capacity has already been reduced by
more than half. How much longer would be required to reach the original capacity
of 22.5 million units no man can say, but it might well be another half century.
Aside from human inertia, the chief retarding factor in both instances would be the
long, slow process of rebuilding the soil.
ment of labor by machinery in manufacturing, high standards of
living, stable communities and general social and economic well-
being, reasonable prices to the ultimate consumer, all depend vitally
upon the proper handling of natural resources, among which the
western range must occupy a conspicuous place.
With such contrasts in probable losses and possible benefits a
recommendation for affirmative action is the only one that can be
made.
II. THE VIRGIN RANGE
By RICHARD E. MCAEDLE, Director, and DAVID F. COSTEIXO, Assistant Conserva-
tionist, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station
The transcontinental traveler of today would have difficulty in
visualizing the western range as it was before occupancy by the white
man and his domestic livestock, for little virgin range remains in
the western United States. But nearly a century ago the "forty-
niner", on his way overland to the Pacific coast, found a vast, un-
spoiled natural reservoir of forage extending from the Mississippi
River to the Pacific Ocean and from Canada to Mexico. Much of
it was called at that time the "Great American Desert" — an immense
region of rolling grassland, parched deserts, and rugged mountains ;
inhabited only by Indians and roving herds of buffalo, elk, and other
animals; with treacherous rivers to be forded and long stretches
without water of any kind, with mud or dust, blistering heat or
sudden snowstorms. Who among these overland voyagers could have
dreamed that within a few short decades other settlers would engage
in fierce wars among themselves for possession of this "desert" land ;
how could they have guessed that this land would produce five times
more wealth for the Nation through the pasturage of livestock than
all the gold they would dig out of the earth with their picks and
shovels ? For this vast desert, plain, and mountain country was soon
to become the great western range.
Before agricultural settlement by the white man, the virgin range
comprised the western two-thirds of the United States. If nongraz-
able lands such as mountain tops, almost barren deserts and dense
forests, are excluded, it encompassed nearly 850 million acres. As
might be expected for so large an area, there were tremendous varia-
tions in topography, soil, and climate. These great differences in
environment resulted in correspondingly great differences in the kind
of vegetation. In some places the range was a natural grassland
that stretched for mile upon mile without bush or tree to break the
monotony of the landscape. Other areas, less extensive, were brushy,
the intermingled grasses and weeds being inconspicuous though pres-
ent in considerable quantities. Elsewhere the range was clothed
with forests, but frequently these forests were sufficiently open to
permit the establishment of shrubs, grass, and herbaceous plants
beneath the forest canopy.
Each of these three main classes of vegetation — grasslands, brush,
and forests — included several distinctive types, areas characteristi-
cally possessing one or more outstanding vegetational features which
caught the eye and lingered in the memory of the early-day trans-
continental travelers. Their diaries describe how in journeying west-
ward they spent weeks crossing first the tall-grass prairies and then
the short-grass plains, "endless" grasslands extending to the very
foot of the Rocky Mountains (fig. 25, p. 85). Those who traveled
71
72 THE WESTEKN KANGE
the Oregon Trail encountered bunchgrass plains in what is now east-
ern Oregon and Washington, and those who reached the central
valley of California saw a similar type. Pioneers who traveled far
to the Southwest found near the Mexican border another type, the
semidesert grass.
The overland travelers eventually were obliged to leave the open,
grassy plains for the more laborious passage through the brush of
deserts, foothills, and lower mountain slopes. Along the northern
trails this type was sagebrush in which there was considerable grass ;
in the far Southwest was a quite different type consisting of various
southern desert shrubs, such as the creosotebush and saltbushes (fig.
30, p. 95) . In southwestern Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and the South-
west the pioneers encountered salt- desert shrubs on alkaline soils, and
in California these adventurers of covered-wagon days found chap-
arral, a dense mixture of a hundred different brush and tree species
forming almost impenetrable thickets on the foothills.
On the mountain sides above the brush fields were open forests of
gnarled piiion and juniper (fig. 34, p. 101). jAt still higher eleva-
tions, or where the soil was more moist, they encountered parklike
open forests of ponderosa pine and of aspen and fir. Denser forests
of spruce and fir, western white pine, redwood, Douglas fir, spruce,
hemlock, and lodgepole pine occurred over large areas but inter-
mingled with these forests were open, grassy meadows of varying
size.
A DETAILED PICTURE OF VIRGIN RANGE TYPES
This varied succession of range types was found widely scattered
throughout the West, often extending without a break over large
areas. Other types were local only. The descriptions of the indi-
vidual types which follow give a more detailed picture of the many
different kinds of grazing lands found in the virgin range. The
approximate total acreage 3 and grazing capacity of each range type
in its virgin condition are given in the next chapter.
TALL GRASS
Probably no part of the western range produced palatable and
nutritious forage in such abundance as the tall-grass prairies. Not
only was there an enormous volume of vegetation on the 42 million
acres in this type,4 but there was scarcely a grass, weed, or shrub
present which could not be eaten by grazing animals. When the
white man first settled in the Midwest, the prairie extended wedge-
like from Illinois northwesterly into Canada and southwesterly into
Texas. Its western boundary, though very irregular, was in the
Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, where the tall grass of
the prairies gradually merged with the short grass of the plains.
The vegetation of the prairies varied with topography, soil, and
moisture, but always dominating these gently rolling lands was a
mixture of several species of tall grass. An intermingling of half-
8 Areas of range types in their virgin condition are approximations based on estimates
by skilled observers and tempered by reasonably accurate information on extent of the
types 50 to 100 years ago, their recent expansions and contractions and the area in each
type which has been used for agricultural crops, roads, etc.
4 This was the area of tall grass within the limits of the present range, west of the
boundary shown in fig. 25, p. 85. East of this boundary, the prairie tall-grass type cov-
ered approximately 210 million acres, or a total of about 252 million acres.
THE VIKGIN EANGE 73
shrubs and multitudinous flowers gave the landscape variety and
color. In the moist bottom lands sloughgrass grew tall as a horse's
back. On the drier slopes other grasses, 2 or 3 feet tall, such as the
bluejoint turkeyfoot ("big bluestem"), the prairie beardgrass ("little
bluestem"), Indian grass, wild-rye, and switchgrass formed socie-
ties, characteristic in themselves, but all a part of the greater forma-
tion that was the prairie. The still drier uplands were carpeted with
shorter grasses, bluestem, needlegrasses, side-oats grama, and in some
places by the bunch-forming sand dropseed. Interspersed with
these were semiwoody and herbaceous plants that bloomed with the
change of season: goldenrods, wild daisies, the wreath aster, and a
host of associates. The silvery canescence of the leadplant or "prai-
rie shoestring", the bright yellow of the sunflower, the white of the
anemone, and the brilliant orange of the butterflyweed, or "pleurisy-
root", intermingled with the green background of the prairie grasses
in a beautiful and intricate mosaic. In late summer these bright
colors slowly faded as the vegetation dried and the prairie became a
vast sea of rusty brown.
The prairie was productive. It is hard to picture today the vast
numbers of wild fowl — golden plovers, prairie chickens, geese, and
ducks — that inhabited this region. Countless bison grazed in massive
herds over the country where later the settler was to find good
pasturage for his livestock. Its vastness, its productivity, and the
ease with which it restored itself all contributed toward making the
prairie an exceedingly valuable range resource.
SHORT GRASS
As the pioneer moved westward the tall-grass prairies gradually
gave way to an endless carpet of sod-forming grasses much shorter
than those of the prairies. These vast short-grass plains were for
the most part fairly level and extended from the Panhandle of Texas
northward beyond the Canadian border. The eastern edge was near
the center of the present States of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dako-
tas; westward it stretched to the very foothills of the Rocky
Mountains, forming a belt from 300 to 600 miles wide and 280
million acres in extent.
The plains country received very much less rain than the prairies,
and, as a consequence, was dominated by grama and buffalo grass,
which needed relatively little water. The deeper-rooted, moisture-
requiring tall grasses and herbs so typical of the prairies were
almost entirely excluded.
This vast area of sod-grasses was not, however, uniform in compo-
sition throughout its entire extent. Along the western edge of the
short-grass belt in Montana and Wyoming, the short-grass type
alternated with the sagebrush and was further modified by a gener-
ous admixture of several other valuable forage plants including
wheatgrass and junegrass. Further south, along the western edge
of the short-grass plains, the grama was mixed with a great variety
of palatable herbaceous plants, some of which also were found in the
nearby mountains. In what is now western Kansas and Oklahoma,
eastern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico, and the Texas Pan-
handle, buffalo grass, galleta grass, and other grasses appeared in
greater abundance than in the more northerly portions of the type
74 THE WESTERN RANGE
Various annuals of moderate or low palatibility also appeared:
Woolly Indian- wheat, sixweeks fescue, rough pennyroyal, and west-
ern stickseed; and during wet years, perennial grasises such as
needle-and-thread and sand dropseed, together with various weeds,
developed a taller cover. Elsewhere, bluestem ("western wheat-
grass") and western needlegrass added greatly to the luxuriant
appearance of the short-grass cover. In the transition zone between
the prairies and the plains, the sod cover was more open, and
included deep-rooted plants of the tall-grass type such as "wire-
grass" and bush morning-glory.
Grama, buffalo grass, and most of the other species of the short-
grass type were palatable and nutritious. Although the short grasses
matured early, their cured leaves remained as valuable forage and
were available the year round except when covered with snow. In-
jurious species were at a minimum. The high grazing capacity of
the range is indicated by the enormous herds of buffalo which
roamed these plains.
PACIFIC BUNCHGRASS
In western Montana, southwestern Idaho, eastern Washington and
Oregon, and in central California the pioneer found a luxuriant
grassland that resembled the prairies but with the additional char-
acteristic of many grasses growing in tufts or bunches. This bunch-
grass type was so luxuriant in its virgin condition that explorers
made frequent comments concerning it. Commander Wilkes (186)5
wrote in 1841 of north central Oregon : "These hills, as well as the
country nearer at hand, were covered with a natural hay or bunch-
grass, which affords very nutritious food for cattle", and again near
Walla Walla in eastern Washington, "To the north and south are
extensive prairies, covered with the natural hay of the country, on
which the cattle feed." Fremont (55) wrote of eastern Oregon in
1 843 : "The mountains were covered with good bunchgrass" ; and later
Stuart (138) recorded:
We crossed the Rocky Mountain Divide on the 10th day of October, 1857,
where the station called Monida now is on the Oregon Short Line railroad. As
soon as we had crossed the divide a wonderful change appeared in the country.
Instead of the gray sagebrush covered plains of Snake River, we saw smooth
rounded hills and sloping benchland covered with yellow bunchgrass that waved
in the wind like a field of grain.
These testimonials as to the character, productivity, and palata-
bility of the vegetation abounding in this territory are further sub-
stantiated by scattered remnants of the original vegetation, not so
easily read as diaries but far more realistic. Cemeteries, fence
corners, and moderately grazed fields indicate an abundance of
palatable and nutritious bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, giant
wild-rye, bluegrass, and needlegrass. Not so abundant, but highly
important as forage, were palatable weeds, such as balsamroot,
hawksbeard, mountain-dandelion, and sunflower.
Farther south, in California, was a similar native bunchgrass
prairie closely resembling the bunchgrass prairies of the Pacific
Northwest. The more important forage species were bluegrass, june-
6 Italic numbers In parenthesis refer to literature cited, p. 557.
THE VIRGIN RANGE 75
grass, oniongrass, needlegrass, wild-rye, and squirreltail grasses.
Clements (&4) describes a nearly continuous area of California
needlegrass several hundred miles long which once existed there.
Mixed with these more valuable grasses were clovers, lupines, sun-
flowers, poppies, and innumerable other herbs in infinite variety.
Although totaling only about 61 million acres and small in com-
parison with the tremendous area occupied by the short-grass plains,
the Pacific bunchgrass type was undoubtedly the finest grassland
west of the Rocky Mountains. It provided valuable forage for
immense numbers of wild animals and later was to become equally
valuable for pasturage of domestic livestock.
SEMIDESEKT GRASS
South of the short-grass plains and paralleling the Mexican border
in Texas, New Mexico, and southern Arizona occurred a discontinu-
ous belt of arid grassland which resembled the plains to some ex-
tent. But the vegetation of these semidesert grasslands was quite
different from that of the true short-grass type. In addition to the
grasses, many parts of the area supported a scraggly growth of
thorny shrubs and low trees. It covered approximately 93 million
acres, extending over broad, flat valleys, low hills, and mesa tops
and up onto the lower slopes of the mountains.
The most valuable forage plants in this type were three grasses:
Rothrock ("crowfoot") grama, black grama, and curly-mesquite. In
some localities Rothrock grama formed rather dense stands having
the appearance of fields of short cereal, and on the lower foothills
curly-mesquite occurred in sufficient density to form a sod that in
many ways resembled the buffalo-grama sod of the plains. These
nutritious grasses, however, though distributed widely throughout
the type, comprised only a relatively small portion of its total area.
More widely distributed was the black grama, which sparsely covered
the sandy and gravelly slopes between the river bottoms and the
foothills.
Scattered through this grass type were thorny shrubs and dwarfed
trees such as mesquite, mimosa, catclaw, and other acacias, hack-
berries, creosotebusn, jojoba, ceanothus, and low-growing live oaks.
Interspersed with these were pricklypear and other cacti, yucca or
Spanish-bayonet, and other plants characteristic of regions of little
rainfall. None of these latter species were of appreciable value for
forage.
The diaries of the early explorers and the accounts of later travelers
through the Southwest seldom or never mentioned any difficulty in
finding forage for their animals. The immense numbers of pack and
draft animals and cattle that year after year followed the Butterfield
and old Texas-California cattle trails through this type were able
to maintain themselves on the natural forage during months of
travel.
SAGEBRUSH-GRASS
One of the most distinctive range types which the early travelers
encountered was the sagebrush-grass. The pioneers of the Oregon
Trail seldom were out of the sagebrush type from the time they
entered it in eastern Wyoming until they reached the Cascade Range
in central Oregon; or if they turned southward in southern Idaho
76 THE WESTEKN RANGE
they found it all the way through Nevada to the foothills of the
Sierras.
The traveler, accustomed to the green prairies of the Midwest,
found the dull, gray expanse of the sagebrush forbidding and barren,
but in reality this type had many attractive features.
There are many lovely plants that blossom in early spring, filling the air
with fragrance, and. in summer and fall the yellow of sunflowers and of the
still more plentiful rabbitbrush, a relative of the goldenrod, frequently give
broad dashes of brilliant color. Beneath the sagebrush in a state of nature
nutritious bunchgrass grows abundantly (112).
A significant feature of the virgin sagebrush type was the abun-
dance of palatable grasses and weeds which grew under and between
the shrubs. Prominent among these were the wheatgrasses, blue-
bunch fescue, needlegrasses, wild-rye, Indian ricegrass, wild gera-
nium, balsamroot, and yarrow. Of lesser importance as forage but
of frequent occurrence were hawksbeard, phlox, sunflower, lupine,
and many other species. This cover of grass and weeds beneath the
sagebrush varied in density with soil and moisture conditions from
a thin stand such as in the Snake River plains of Idaho to a fairly
thick sod as in the mountains along the foothills in Montana.
Occasional very dense stands of sagebrush were found, but as a
rule the individual plants were several feet apart, forming open
diminutive forests from 2 to 7 feet in height. Mingled with the
silvery gray foliage of the sagebrush were other browse species such
as bud sagebrush ("bud-sage"), bitterbrush, and rabbitbrush.
Throughout its range the sagebrush type occurred in streaks and
patches along rivers and streams as well as on areas of poorer and
drier soils. It was found on extensive plains, on the rolling foot-
hills, and extended upward on dry mountain slopes to merge with
open forests of pinon-juniper and ponderosa pine.
In its primitive condition, the rich understory of grasses and weeds
beneath the "sage" provided abundant feed in spring and fall for
deer and other animals that migrated between plains and foothills
and the higher elevations. On the broad plains, nutritious forage
was available throughout the year. Because of its widespread oc-
currence over 90 million acres and its high forage value, the sage-
brush-grass type was unquestionably one of the most important of
all the original western ranges.
SOUTHERN DESERT SHRUB
Driest of all the range types was the southern desert shrub, of
which the greater portion was in southwestern Arizona, southern
Nevada, and southeastern California. Smaller areas occurred in
southern and western Texas and southern New Mexico near the
Mexican border. The Mohave Desert is included within this type
as are also the lower valleys of the Rio Grande and of the Colorado,
Gila, and Pecos Rivers. In its original condition only 25 of the
approximately 51 million acres in this type were of appreciable value
for grazing.
Owing to extremely high temperatures and very low rainfall, this
type has never produced sufficient vegetation to make it a very
dependable part of the range resource. Travelers, however, invari-
ably were impressed with the bizarre and varied appearance of the
plants on these sun-scorched desert lands. There was little uni-
THE VIRGIN RANGE 77
f ormity in the plant cover. Gray stretches of desert saltbush formed
dense thickets 3 or 4 feet tall in the valleys. Over extensive tracts,
widely spaced creosotebushes gave the appearance of scrubby
orchards. On the surrounding hills and ridges were varied forms
of cacti, centuryplants, agaves, and yuccas; this portion of the
desert must have been interesting, picturesque, and even weird with
its great columnar cacti, spiny paloverdes, the radiating stems of
ocotillo, and the beauty and variety of myriads of bright-colored
flowers which appeared for brief intervals after the infrequent rains.
Over most of the range, palatable forage was provided by mesquite
browse and weeds which sprang up after rains. With increase in
elevation toward the fringing mountains, however, the vegetation
became more abundant, and at the highest elevations within the
type were such true forage plants as Rothrock and black gramas,
alkali sacaton, lovegrasses, and three-awns, and in certain situations
saltgrass and galleta.
SALT-DESERT SHRUB
On the rolling alkaline soils of southwestern Wyoming, southern
Idaho, Utah, and Nevada was the salt-desert shrub type, covering
about 42 million acres, which resembled a low, scattered sagebrush
formation. The predominant vegetation was a mixture of palatable
low shrubs and scattered grasses. The most nutritious browse plants
were shadscale, bud sagebrush, winterfat, and rabbitbrush. The
most valuable grasses were wild-rye, squirreltail, Indian ricegrass,
galleta, and alkali sacaton, and although these seldom were thick
enough to develop a sod they formed fairly close stands in the less
alkaline situations.
The composition of the plant cover varied according to the salt
content of the soil, and consequently different areas were dominated
by different species. Where the salt content was extremely high,
pickleweeds and seepweeds occurred over great level expanses, but
these were unpalatable and never of value for grazing. Under more
favorable soil conditions the alkali sacaton formed a close sod over
extensive flats where clumps of yellow-flowered rabbitbrush, 2 or 3
feet high, frequently appeared. On moderately alkaline areas,
greasewood plants 2 to 5 feet in height were more or less evenly
spaced from 5 to 8 feet apart; their bright green foliage contrasted
strongly with the ashen hue of the low, hemispheric clumps of shad-
scale which frequently grew in mixture with the greasewood.
Even in its primitive condition the percentage of ground covered
by the salt-desert vegetation was slight. A recent survey in Nevada
of railroad rights-of-way which have been fenced for more than 30
years showed that grass covered only 1 percent and browse less than
3 percent of the total ground area. But even this apparently scant
cover of vegetation furnished feed for thousands of game animals
each winter.
PlNON-JuNIPER
The first forest type usually encountered by the pioneers after
crossing the Great Plains on their westward trek was the pifion-
juniper. These low-growing, open forests of pifion pines and juni-
pers occurred over Y4 million acres from the eastern foothills of the
Rocky Mountains in Colorado westward to central Oregon and
78 THE WESTERN RANGE
south through the foothill country of Utah, Nevada, eastern Cal-
ifornia, Arizona, and New Mexico. On the lower slopes of high
mountains the pinon- juniper type formed a transition zone between
the treeless sagebrush or similar shrub types and the denser forests
growing at higher elevations. In many places, particularly on the
elongated low ridges of Nevada, pifions and junipers were the only
forest trees present in any abundance. Here the type occurred as
large islands in a sea of sagebrush. The pinon- juniper type extended
without a break over thousands of acres throughout the Southwest,
and long fingers of this fringe forest type followed low, rocky ridges
and other broken ground out into the semidesert plains.
The pifions and junipers were short, dense-crowned trees 20 to 40
feet tall, the individual trees generally growing rather far apart.
Along the upper edge of the pinon- jumper belt, the pines often
dominated the forest mixture, whereas, at the lower edge of the belt,
the junipers ordinarily occurred in greater abundance than pine.
The pinon-juniper type was an important forage resource. The
wide spacing of the trees permitted the development of consider-
able browse such as mountain-mahogany, bitterbrush, and cliffrose,
as well as many palatable grasses and weeds, the more prevalent of
which were the gramas, needlegrass, wheatgrass, bluegrass, and
fescue.
WOODLAND-CHAPARRAL
Around the sides of the great central valley of California, on the
low hills along the Pacific Coast from San Francisco south to Mex-
ico, and in southern Arizona, the early-day traveler found vast brush
fields composed of not one but dozens of different species of shrubs.
These almost impenetrable thickets of bushes and stunted hardwood
trees later acquired the name "chaparral." Associated with these
chaparral thickets were large areas of comparatively open wood-
land, parklike stretches characterized by various species of oaks, and
an understory of palatable grasses and herbs. Just as the pinon-
juniper type elsewhere in the Southwest formed a transition zone
between the grass or desert-shrub vegetation of the plains and the
forests of the higher mountain slopes, so the woodland-chaparral
formed a transition zone between the grass types and the higher
mountain forests in southern California and Arizona. In California
alone, the woodland-chaparral type covered about 10 million acres.
Although more than a hundred different species of shrubs and
dwarfed trees intermingled to form this peculiar plant cover, its
species composition varied considerably in different parts of the
type. The most important species were highland live oak, poison-
oak, scrub oak, hpllyleaf cherry, sumac, ceanothus, and manzanita.
At varying elevations the shrub species gradually merged with open
oak woodlands.
The woodland portions of the type supported a good growth of
valuable forage grasses and weeds. There was no available grass or
herbaceous forage beneath the dense canopy of the brush portions of
this type, and the brush itself was of low palatability. The chapar-
ral, however, had enormous value for watershed protection, since its
dense cover prevented soil washing and thus played a prominent
part in preserving lower, more valuable grasslands.
THE VIRGIN RANGE 79
OPEN FORESTS
Valuable forage occurred in the 131 million acres of open forests
that grew on the slopes of practically every mountain range from
the eastern foothills of the Rockies to the slopes of the Cascades and
the Sierras. In these forests the trees were fairly wide-spaced, and
a grassy floor beneath the trees added to a parklike appearance.
Numerous clear mountain streams and the easy accessibility of the
grass cover contributed to making these areas an extremely valuable
part of the forage resource.
The most extensive areas of grazing land in the open-forest type
were found under the ponderosa pine forests which occurred in large
bodies throughout the West. In many localities the prevailing open-
forest type was a pure stand of ponderosa pine; elsewhere it was a
mixed stand of ponderosa pine, sugar pine, and incense cedar or a
mixture of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. At high elevations in
the Rocky Mountains there were parks and meadows in openings
between stands of Engelmann spruce and alpine fir. Here and there
were areas of low-growing oaks, maples, and other mountain brush.
In Colorado and adjacent Southwestern States the type included
tracts of aspen and Douglas fir. Throughout the type were moun-
tain meadows of luxuriant grass and palatable weeds.
Almost everywhere in the open forests was abundant forage com-
posed of many different species of shrubs, grasses, and weeds. As
might be expected, the forage species varied considerably throughout
this very large region, depending on climate, soil, and to some extent
on the kind of overtopping forest cover. For the type as a whole,
however, the many valuable forage plants included blue grama,
bluestem, various fescues, "beardless bunchgrass", wheatgrass, pine-
grass, junegrass, bluegrasses, redtop, alpine timothy, needlegrasses,
ricegrasses, and elk sedge; wild geranium, bluebells, yarrow, suc-
culent vetches, and other nourishing weeds and palatable browse such
as snowberry, bitterbrush, and mountain-mahogany.
These open forests and mountain meadows had a high value for
forage. As a rule, this type occurred at rather high elevations, and
its forage matured later than that of the lower ranges. For this
reason the open-forest ranges later were to become an extremely
important link in the grazing cycle for domestic livestock providing
the all-important summer pastures and, in combination with the
lower ranges, making possible yearlong grazing.
DENSE FORESTS
Not all of the forests of the West were suitable for grazing.
Certain forest types were so dense that little herbaceous or shrubby
vegetation was able to live in the deep shade, or if herbage did de-
velop it was of low forage value. Included in the dense forest types
were the western white pine-western larch forests of northern
Idaho, thickets of lodgepole pine throughout the Rocky Mountains,
redwood stands along the northern California coast, the fog-drenched
Sitka spruce-western hemlock and Douglas fir forests of western
Oregon and Washington, and parts of the Engelmann spruce-alpine
fir forests of the high Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains.
Here and there in these dense forests were open, grassy meadows.
80 THE WESTERN RANGE
In the aggregate, these dense forests covered a very large area and
comprised about 68 million acres. Occasional fires, started by light-
ning or by Indians, removed the forest cover temporarily, and for a
few years deer and other wild animals found considerable feed in the
burned areas, on which generally developed a good cover of such
palatable plants as peavine and fireweed, until new forest growth
shaded out these succulent plants.
WHAT THE RANGE RESOURCE OFFERED A GROWING NATION
In the days of the "Forty-niners" there were few settlements in
all that vast territory lying between the Mississippi River and the
Pacific Coast. True, the Spaniards had a few herds of cattle and
sheep in the Southwest as early as 1598, and the Mormons in 1847
established a small colony on the shores of a great salt lake near the
western foothills of the Rocky Mountains ; there were a few military
posts scattered here and there, and at various strategic points were
isolated trading establishments of the great fur companies; and, of
course, a few small, struggling communities had taken root in the
fertile valleys adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.
Except for these rudimentary beginnings of settlement, the whole
of the far-flung expanse of prairie, plain, desert, and mountain high-
land was virgin territory. It was virgin country in 1540 when the
Spanish captain, Coronado, led the Conquistadores up from Mexico
through what is now Texas and on northward over the lush grass of
the never-ending plains. It was the free and unchallenged home of
the buffalo and antelope in 1805 when Lewis and Clark made their
intrepid march to the mouth of the Columbia. And it was still
virgin territory in 1835 when Colonel Dodge and his party of Gov-
ernment explorers spent the entire summer following the Platte
Eiver toward its source, traveling across the Great Plains, along the
frontal wall of the Rockies, and returning eastward by way of the
Arkansas River. As late as 1858, buffalo roamed over the land where
Denver now stands. Those who set forth three-quarters of a century
ago to cross this vast, uncharted, little-known wilderness saw the
land as Coronado saw it three centuries before. They saw a virgin
range, an enormous, untapped natural resource.
This virgin range exhibited a wide variation in plant cover, but
everywhere except in the desert areas, there was an abundance of
palatable and nutritious plants suitable for the pasturage of wild
game and, later, for domestic livestock. Before white settlement the
range was used only by wild game. Although these animals were
present in very large numbers, occasionally overgrazing local areas
and variations in forage production were caused by droughts, some
of which undoubtedly were as severe as those experienced in recent
years, the range by and large was able to maintain itself. It would
have continued to do so if the white man had not upset its natural
and fairly stable equilibrium.
The magnificent opportunities for prudent utilization of this great
natural resource could not have been fully appreciated by those who
settled the range ; for the story of the range is in part one of high
hope and lofty ideals, and in part one of indifference to the welfare
of the generations to follow. It is a story of the prodigal exploita-
tion of a vast natural resource on an enormous scale.
III. THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
By RICHABD E. MoARDLE, Director, and DAVID F. COSTELLO, Assistant Conserva-
tionist, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station ; E. E. BIBK-
MAIER, Range Examiner, and CARL EWING, Forest Supervisor, North Pacific
Region; B. A. HENDRICKS, Associate Range Examiner, Southwestern Forest
and Range Experiment Station, C. A. KTJTZLEB, Staff Technician, Rocky Moun-
tain Region; ALVA A. SIMPSON, Associate Director, Plains Shelterbelt, and
ARNOLD R. STANDING, Range Examiner, Intermountain Region
If the "Forty-niner" could but repeat his westward journey today,
how different the range would appear! Where less than a century
ago he spent weary weeks guiding his ox team over rolling prairies,
wind-swept plains, and rugged mountains; where were but wagon
National Forests
Indian Lands
Public Domain &
Grazing Dist's
Other Federal__
State and County
Private
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3 10 20 30 40 50
AREA (PERCENT)
FIGUBD 23.— OWNERSHIP DISTRIBUTION OP THE PRESENT RANGE AREA.
Of the immense area of "free range", more than half has passed into private ownership.
National forests, Indian lands, and public domain divide up about 36 percent in the
ratio, roughly, of 2^-1-3.
tracks and isolated Indian villages in the days of the gold rush, he
now would find a network of roads, farmsteads, cities, and towns.
Enormous areas throughout this western country would still have
somewhat the appearance of the "endless grasslands" that he knew;
but beneath the appearance is a change that might elude the "Forty-
niner" — the great depletion in quality and quantity of the forage
resources that has taken place in the last 50 or 60 years.
Widespread, continuous, and exhaustive use of the forage has
changed the whole character of the virgin range. The outstanding
changes have been (1) the passage of much of the land from Federal
ownership to other forms of control, (2) a reduction in the area
available for range use, (3) a tremendous decrease in the quantity
and quality of the forage, and (4) deterioration of the basic resource,
the soil itself.
64946—36 7
81
82
THE WESTERN RANGE
The ownership pattern of the virgin range has changed from virtu-
ally complete Federal ownership to a bewildering mosaic of inter-
mingled State, county, municipal, private, Federal, and other owner-
ships. Even the land in Federal ownership or control is under vari-
ous jurisdictions, such as the national parks and monuments, national
forests, Indian lands, grazing districts, and unreserved public domain.
Table 5 indicates for the present range area of 728,000,000 acres the
approximate acreage in each of the several classes of ownership.
The proportional area in each ownership is illustrated in figure 23.
TABLE 5. — Distribution of virgin and present range areas by ownership or control
and plant types
Type
Approximate
area of virgin
range 1
Present area, all
ownerships
Federal ownership or control
National forests Indian lands Public domain
Tall grass
Short grass
Pacific bunchgrass.
Semidesert grass. ._
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert
shrub.
Salt-desert shrub..
Pinon-juniper
Woodland-chapar-
ral
Open forests
1,000 acres
42,000
280,000
61,000
93,000
90,000
25, 000
42,000
74,000
10,000
130, 550
All types
847, 550
Per-
cent
5.0
33.0
7.2
11.0
10.6
2.9
5.0
8.7
1.2
15.4
1,000 acres
18, 513
98, 092
42, 534
89, 274
96, 528
40, 858
75, 728
13, 406
126, 367
100.0
728, 196
Per-
cent
2.5
27.2
5.8
12.3
13.3
3.7
5.6
10.4
1.8
17.4
1,000 acres
202
993
1,714
1,636
3,637
13,811
712
64,785
100.0
87, 954
Per-
cent
1.1
.5
4.0
1.8
3.8
.4
.9
18.2
5.3
51.3
1,000 acres
106
11, 627
461
12, 353
2,158
2,409
1,657
10, 352
78
7,190
12.1
48, 391
Per-
cent
0.6
5.9
1.1
13.8
2.2
8.9
4.1
13.7
.6
5.7
1,000 acres
10
9,- 759
1,689
7,686
43, 237
6,424
30, 657
22, 302
1,693
4,335
127, 792
Per-
cent
0.1
4.9
4.0
8.6
44.8
23.9
75.0
29.5
12.6
3.4
17.5
Type
Federal ownership or control
Other Federal
All Federal
State and county
Private
Tall grass
Short grass
Pacific bunchgrass..
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert
shrub
Salt-desert shrub— .
Pinon-juniper
Woodland - chapar-
ral
Open forests
1,000 acres
137
3,166
863
2,734
6,147
1,530
2,000
4,561
120
1,739
All types
22, 997
Percent
0.7
1.6
2.0
3.1
6.4
5.7
4.9
6.0
.9
1.4
1,000 acres
455
25, 545
4,727
24,409
55, 179
10, 461
34, 680
51,026
2,603
78,049
3.2
287, 134
Percent
2.5
12.9
11.1
27.3
57.2
84.9
67.4
19.4
61.8
1,000 acres
787
24,403
1,894
16,440
6,558
5,792
927
163
4,750
39.4
65, 516
Percent
4.2
12.3
4.5
18.4
6.8
21.5
2.3
5.0
1.2
3.7
1,000 acres
17, 271
148, 144
35,913
48, 425
34, 791
10,643
5,251
20,900
10,640
43, 568
9.0
375, 546
Percent
93.3
74.8
84.4
64.3
36.0
39.6
12.8
27.6
79.4
34.5
51.6
* Exclusive of area east of boundary line shown in fig. 1. In addition to area shown here, the tall
grass type is estimated to have covered 210,000,000 acres east of the boundary line shown in fig. 1.
» Including grazing districts.
» Exclusive of 1,217,000 acres of grazable land in national parks and monuments, only 40,000 acres of which
are actually grazed.
Changes in area have occurred in nearly every major plant type.
Some have become larger. The sagebrush-grass range, for instance,
has expanded at the expense of adjacent types from about 90 million
to more than 96 million acres, and in California the woodland-
chaparral vegetation covers 3.4 million acres more than at the time
of white settlement. Some of the range types are considerably
smaller, as, for example, the tall-grass prairie, much of which is now
devoted to agricultural crops. The Pacific bunchgrass range also
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
83
has become considerably smaller, because a large part has been used
for wheat production, orchards, and other agricultural crops, and
because of the inroads made by encroaching sagebrush. The pro-
portional distribution of the present range area in the different
plant types is shown in figure 24.
In every part of the western range, lands have been taken for
cities, roads, and for other needs of settlement. All told, as detailed
in table 5, the total area of open range land is about 119 million
acres less today than a century ago.6
Tall Grass
•
Short Grass
Pacific Bunchgrass
Semidesert Grass.
Sagebrush-Grass.
Southern Desert
Shrub
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Salt- Desert Shrub.
Pinon-Juniper
Woodland-
Chaparral
Open Forest _ _
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) 10 20 30
AREA (PERCENT)
FIGURB 24.— TYPES OF RANGE FORAGE.
One-fourth and more of the present range area is in the very valuable short-grass type.
The first four principal grass types (shown in fig. 25) account for nearly a half of
the total area.
By far the most significant departure from virgin range condi-
tions is the change in the plant cover. Although varying in density
under different forms of management, the plant cover in every range
type is depleted to an alarming degree. Many valuable forage
species have disappeared entirely. Palatable plants are being
replaced by unpalatable ones. Worthless and obnoxious weeds from
foreign countries are invading every type. And throughout the
entire western range the vegetation has been thinned out until even
•About 2 million acres of former range have been used for cities, highways, and other
needs of settlement ; about 116 million acres for farm crops ; and 1 million acres of
grazable lands are included in national parks and monuments. Also not included are
about 68 million acres of dense forests and 59 million acres of deserts and inaccessible
areas which never have been usable as range.
84 THE WESTERN RANGE
conservative estimates place the forage value at less than half of
what it was a century ago. This loss in forage values from virgin
range conditions is referred to as "range depletion."
Accompanying the loss in plant cover has come about an inevita-
ble soil deterioration. Depletion of the plant cover meant the loss
of a shielding cover of herbage to break the force of rains and ease
the water gently into the soil ; of a litter cover of dead and decaying
leaves to filter the running water and thus prevent clogging the soil
pores with silt ; of a generous admixture of humus to aid in catching
and absorbing the waters rushing over steep hillsides; of a mass
of fibrous plant roots to keep the soil loose and friable and capable
of holding a large quantity of water ; as all these were lost, the hold-
ing power of the good soil was gone and it became an easy prey to
soil erosion. It was and is a self-continuing destruction, for, as
more and more of the fertile topsoil is washed away, it becomes
increasingly difficult for plants to reestablish a protective cover, and
floods from severely denuded parts of a range frequently ruin nearby
areas which lie in the path of mudflows.
FORAGE DEPLETION IN THE PRINCIPAL RANGE TYPES
A brief description of present conditions of vegetation in the prin-
cipal range types will emphasize not only how different the present
range is from the virgin range but how greatly every range type has
suffered, and is continuing to suffer, from forage depletion. No
attempt has been made to develop a complete picture for each type
but only to select from the large amount of information available in
Forest Service and other records a sufficient number of examples to
depict general conditions as they exist today.7 These short accounts
deal entirely with vegetative conditions of the range. The causes of
forage depletion and the remedies are discussed in later chapters.
Throughout these accounts it will be noted that forage depletion
may (and generally does) mean that the plant cover is thinner; de-
pletion also is indicated by the replacement of palatable and nutri-
tious plants by unpalatable or less nutritious plants. Even in its
virgin condition there were minor changes in the character of the
plant cover, which was thicker one season than another; having now
more plants of a certain species, now fewer. But in general there
was a biological balance, a natural equilibrium, which year in and
7 These are for the most part taken from unpublished data of the Forest Service.
For many years the Forest Service has collected data on range conditions but to obtain
more information on the present range, especially for areas outside the national forests,
an extensive survey of the entire western range was started in 1932 and completed in
the fall of 1935. The tables presented here are based upon the observations of more
than 100 Forest Service officials, skilled in judging range conditions and familiar with
the country examined. As a basis for judging range conditions these men had the
results obtained through periodic reexaminations over many years of 6,300 permanently
marked sample plots. In addition, forage conditions on more than 14,000 sample plots
were estimated during the 4 years the survey was in progress.
Knowledge of original forage conditions was obtained by examination of remnants
of the virgin range and of "protected" areas such as ungrazed fence corners, cemeteries,
and railroad rights-of-way where the present vegetation is at least indicative of virgin
range conditions. The forage values of present ranges were estimated in terms of those
of the virgin range, and present range lands were grouped into four broad classes : 0-25,
26^50. 51-75, and 76-100 percent decline from original forage values. A map (fig. 38,
p. 110) was prepared, outlining in a general way these four broad classes of forage
depletion. Comparison of this map with those showing distribution of range types
(figs. 25, 30, and 34) and with estimates of land ownership was the basis for preparation
of the forage depletion tables presented in this chapter.
The plant types described are generalized, each inevitably including small areas of
other types. The principal subtypes are detailed in the appendix, p. 600. A similar
generalization is unavoidable in delimiting the depletion classes.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
85
year out maintained the distinctive character of the plant type, only
occasionally upset by certain natural phenomena such as drought, fire,
and localized overgrazing by big game animals.
When the white man came, his disturbance of this balance was of a
more far-reaching nature. He allowed too many of his grazing ani-
TALL GRASS
SHORT GRASS
PACIFIC BUNCHGRASS
SEMI DESERT GRASS
FIGURE 25. — The principal grass types within the boundary of the present range, among
which the short-grass type takes first place in area and grazing valute1..
mals to use the range, with the result that thinning of the plant cover
and packing of the soil induced soil erosion and made natural re-
generation more difficult for the remaining plants. Early grazing
prevented the development of adequate seed crops. These and other
factors entirely changed the site conditions and brought about large
changes in the character of the vegetation. As a rule, it was the
86 THE WESTERN RANGE
poorer plants which were able to survive on the deteriorated sites, and
eventually they gained possession of the areas. In some instances,
these were the plants best able to endure the deteriorated site condi-
tions ; in others, the plants that domestic livestock would not eat obvi-
ously were left to reseed the area while plants relished by livestock
were consumed before seed could be produced. Thus the deteriora-
tion of the site has brought about a more or less complete change in
the character of the plant cover. This in turn has wrought a change
in the grazing capacity, which, as here expressed in animal units, is
the number of acres required to support one unit of domestic live-
stock (i. e., one cow, horse, or mule; or five sheep, goats, or swine)
for 1 month without endangering the continued forage productivity
of the range land.
TALL GRASS
No other range type has so decreased in size as has the tall grass
(fig. 25). The tall-grass prairies originally extended as far east as
Indiana and covered about 252 million acres. Today farm lands
largely replace the tall grass of the Middle West and much of the
42 million acres considered in this report.8 Only 18.5 million acres
remain in range use, for here, too, the soil was fertile and the climate
favorable to crop production. As can be seen in figure 25, the bulk
of the tall-grass range is now in four widely separated places — North
Dakota, Nebraska, southern Kansas and Oklahoma, and the Texas
coastal plain ; and approximately 93 percent of it is privately owned
(table 5). It has less forage depletion than any other part of the
western range, and despite its greatly reduced acreage the tall-grass
type is an important part of the forage resource because of the large
numbers of livestock it can support on relatively small areas.
About three-fourths of the present tall-grass range is in good
condition; the rest has experienced appreciable changes in the make-
up of its plant cover (table 6). Relatively unchanged are the
sand hills and native hay meadows of northwestern Nebraska. Here
in a compact body of range land covering about 12 million acres,
the plant cover has essentially the same species as when plant collec-
tions were made in 1839-58 (131). In North Dakota, Kansas, and
Oklahoma, sagebrush, yucca, shinnery oaks, and other more or less
unpalatable weeds and shrubs have usurped the place of the nutri-
tious tall grasses. For example, examinations of the sand hills south
of Garden City, Kans., in 1902 and 1904 showed that prairie beard-
grass and prairie sandgrass were present in large quantities but
sagebrush and yucca were scarce. In 1935 sand sagebrush and
yucca were the dominant species, whereas it was now prairie beard-
grass and blue grama that were scarce — a complete reversal of types
in 30 years.
8 As already stated in the previous chapter, the 210 million acres of tall grass east of
the boundary line in fig. 25 are not considered as within the present range area.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL,
87
TABLE 6. — Depletion of virgin range in the tall-grass type, ~by ownership and
depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
202
76
10
137
Per-
cent
100
72
100
100
93
100
72
73
1,000
acres
0
30
0
0
Per-
cent
0
28
0
0
7
0
24
23
1,000
acres
0
0
0
0
Per-
cent
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1,000
acres
0
0
0
0
Per-
cent
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
4
1,000
acres
202
106
10
137
Per
cent
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain— grazing
districts
Other Federal l
All Federal 1
425
787
12, 377
30
0
4,145
0
0
0
0
0
749
455
787
17,271
State and county
Private
All ownerships
13, 589
4,175
0
749
18, 513
1 Exclusive of 1,217,000 acres of grazable land in national parks and monuments, only 40,000 of which is
actually grazed.
Included in the 73 percent of the type in reasonably good condi-
tion are the sand hills of Nebraska and the small area in the Texas
Coastal Plain shown in figure 25. That so much of the type as a
whole is in this condition today is undoubtedly the result of abundant
rainfall coupled with the deep-rooting habit of the tall grasses and
their remarkable recuperative powers. Abuse which in other range
types would have quickly brought destruction has harmed the tall
grass only slightly. Material forage depletion occurs in North Da-
kota and on part of the type in Kansas, but most of the tall-grass
range in Kansas and Oklahoma, about 4 percent of the total area in
tall-grass range, has lost nearly all of its former forage value.
Virgin
Range
Present
Range
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 26. — Estimated grazing capacity on present tall-grass range requires nearly one-
fifth greater area per cow (or 5 sheep) than on the virgin range.
Grazing capacity, estimated for both the virgin and the present
range, as described on page 509, is shown in figure 26. In this re-
spect, as in others, the tall-grass type has the advantage of most of
the types which follow.
Although most of the tall-grass type is in reasonably good condi-
tion today, the present trend in forage values is thought to be down-
ward on about 90 percent of the entire tall-grass range (table 25,
p. 116). Unquestionably, the drought of the past few years has had
a part in this decline, but drought alone has caused only about one-
third^of the total loss in forage grasses in this type. Overgrazing,
especially during the recent drought period, is the factor chiefly
&5 THE WESTEEN RANGE
responsible. Since practically all of the tall-grass type is in private
ownership, the responsibility for checking this downward trend of
forage values and rebuilding the plant cover rests with the farmers
and livestock operators using this range. On portions of the
Nebraska National Forest the grazing capacity under controlled use
has been increased 55 percent in the last 23 years, indicating the
progress possible under systematic range management.
SHORT GRASS
The short grass is the largest of the range types, covering 198
million acres (fig. 25). Of this, three-fourths is privately owned
(table 5) ; although millions of acres plowed for agricultural crops
are now reverting to public ownership for nonpayment of taxes.
With many interspersed areas under various forms of Federal and
State control, the short-grass type has become an enormous patch-
work of farms, pasture lands, and open range upon which an increas-
ingly complex pattern of ownership is being superimposed.
The short grasses are hardy, and this type is much less susceptible
to damage through overuse than are other grass types. The forage
value of the present short-grass range, however, is considerably less
than that of the virgin range because of changes in the plant cover.
The replacement of palatable species by inferior plants has con-
tributed to this decline, but the major factor in range depletion has
been the marked thinning of the plant cover.
V rg i n
Range
Present
Range
0 1.5 .
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) perMonih
4-.5
FIGURE 27. — Grazing capacity of the short-grass type at present requires nearly twice
the range area estimated for virgin-range conditions.
A large proportion of the short grasses in the original plant cover
of these plains has been replaced by weeds and shrubs of low palata-
bility, such as sand sagebrush, Russian-thistle, sunflower, asters,
pigweed, goldenrod, and peppergrass. In western Kansas, eastern
Colorado, and southward, the worthless snakeweed, gumweed, and
cactus now dominate many areas. Where mixed prairies once ex-
isted along the Arkansas River, the grasses have almost completely
disappeared and sand sagebrush, R-ussian-thistle, and yucca now con-
stitute 60 percent of the total plant cover. On the high plains of
western Texas, weeds like Russian-thistle and broomweed comprise
from 20 to 40 percent of a plant cover in which grasses once were
85 percent dominant. In eastern Colorado, grasses once comprised
86 percent of the plant cover but now constitute only 56 percent of
the vegetation, whereas weeds have increased from 14 to 34 percent.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
89
Accompanying this decrease in forage quality is the even more
serious decrease in volume of forage through thinning of the entire
plant cover. The vegetation in general is only half as thick as it
was when the white man first began to use the range for pasturage.
The recent drought is responsible for a certain amount of the thin-
ning. It is worth noting, however, that small remnants of the short-
grass range protected from grazing have nearly 10 times as thick a
plant cover as adjacent areas exposed to the same drought conditions
but long overgrazed by livestock.
As a result of this loss in quality and decrease in volume of vege-
tation, the forage value of the short-grass range is much less than
that of the virgin range, and that this condition is widespread is
indicated by the following figures from an extensive survey made in
1935:
Decline from original forage value: Percent
Southwestern North Dakota -------------------------------------- 25-50
Northwestern and western South Dakota _________________________ 37-43
Northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska and southeastern
Wyoming ______________________________________________________ 50-60
Southwest Nebraska and northwestern Kansas ____________________ 50-75
Western Texas ___________________________________________________ 50-70
Forage in southeastern Colorado, the "dust-bowl" area, has lost
88 percent of its former value. The forage of about 13 percent of
the entire short-grass area has been extremely depleted, more than
three-fourths materially or severely depleted, and only about 8 per-
cent can be classed as being in reasonably good condition (table 7).
It is significant, as shown in table 7, that of the severely and ex-
tremely depleted short-grass range more than 80 percent is privately
owned. One of the best indications of what has happened is the con-
trast afforded by figure 27 between grazing capacity of the short-
grass type now and a century ago.
TABLE 7. — Depletion of virgin range in the short-grass type
depletion classes
ownership and
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
401
1,348
547
176
Per-
cent
40
12
6
5
1,000
acres
471
8,603
5,151
590
Per-
cent
48
74
53
19
1,000
acres
121
1,624
3,855
2,400
Per-
cent
12
14
39
76
1,000
acres
0
52
206
0
Per-
cent
0
0)
2
0
1,000
acres
993
11, 627
9,759
3,166
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain— grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
2,472
1,809
11, 766
10
7
8
14, 815
16, 514
70, 361
58
68
47
8,000
5,074
41, 350
31
21
28
258
1,006
24, 667
1
4
17
25, 545
24, 403
148, 144
100
100
100
State and county
Private—
All ownerships
16, 047
8
101, 690
51
54, 424
28
25, 931
13
198, 092
100
Less than 0.5 percent.
The best available information indicates that for the past quarter
century about 95 percent of the whole short-'grass range has steadily
declined in forage value (table 24, p. 115). Nor is it likely that the
present poor condition of this range marks the end of its down-
90 THE WESTERN RANGE
ward trend, unless more care is given the range than in the past;
for depletion has been halted on only 4 percent of the type during
the past 5 years and approximately 94 percent of the short-grass
area is thought to be still on the downgrade (table 25, p. 116) . The
short-grass type, however, has remarkable recuperative powers.
With favorable weather conditions and adequate care, it recovers
quickly.
PACIFIC BUNCHGRASS
The Pacific bunchgrass is the most valuable grass type west of
the Great Plains (fig. 25). Since settlement, however, it has lost
much of its original importance because the total area of the type
is smaller, and also because of a tremendous decline in the forage
value of the remaining bunchgrass range.
Bunchgrass originally covered about 61,000,000 acres, but very
large areas in eastern Washington and north-central Oregon have
been turned to wheat production and in California much of the
land which originally supported bunchgrass is now devoted to
orchards and other agricultural crops. The invasion of sagebrush
has still further decreased the area of the bunchgrass type, which is
now estimated to be only 42.5 million acres. About 84 percent of
the bunchgrass range is privately owned and most of the rest is in
Federal ownership, chiefly as unreserved public domain and national
forests.
Many of the valuable plants of this type have almost entirety
disappeared, notably the immensely valuable bluebunch wheatgrass
on large areas in eastern Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Cali-
fornia. Other native bunchgrasses have been largely replaced by
bur-clover, "filaree", slender oat, and other plants of foreign origin.
Occasionally these introduced plants have considerable forage value
but they seldom compensate for the disappearance of the native
vegetation. Many of the plant immigrants are worthless as feed
for livestock, some are poisonous, and others are mechanically in-
jurious, especially to lambs. Downy chess, locally called "cheat-
grass", an inferior forage plant that came to this country from
abroad, is of but moderate forage value for only a few weeks dur-
ing the year but is now dominating large areas formerly occupied
by bunchgrass. Even casual observers note the astonishingly wide
distribution of Russian-thistle on the bunchgrass range.
The marked decline in forage value of the bunchgrass range can
be traced in part to a general thinning of the plant cover, but
chiefly to a distinct change in the character of the vegetation. Sam-
ple plots located on representative areas in Idaho, Oregon, and
Washington, indicate that the outstanding feature of the change
in character of the plant cover is the shift from perennial grasses
to annual grasses. As shown in table 8, perennial grasses consti-
tuted approximately three-fourths of the original plant cover but
form only a small portion of the present cover. Annual grasses,
which were only 12 percent originally, now comprise 51 percent of
the vegetation. The significance of this replacement of valuable
perennial grasses by annual grasses of low palatability is at least
partly reflected in the great reduction in grazing capacity of this
type as shown in figure 28.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL,
91
TABLE 8. — Approximate composition of the plant cover on the lunch grass range
in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon
Composition
Range
Virgin
Present
Percent
4
51
35
10
Perennial grasses
Percent
76
12
10
2
Annual grasses
Weeds
Shrubs -.
Total
100
100
The fact that the plant cover of much of the present range is
only about 60 percent as thick as that of the virgin range further
explains this very considerable reduction in forage value of the
bunchgrass range of today. Some parts of the present bunchgrass
range are estimated to be only 30 percent as valuable for feed as
under virgin conditions. For the type as a whole, as indicated by
table 9, less than a tenth is only moderately depleted, whereas 55
percent is severely depleted, or worse.
Virgin
Range
Present
Range
01 2345
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 28. — More than twice the area per cow is required today on Pacific bunchgrass
ranges that sufficed under normal conditions.
Even more alarming than the indication that nearly all the forage
is gone on more than half of the bunchgrass range is the generally
recognized fact that forage depletion is still continuing in this type.
Recent estimates suggest that on less than one-fifth of the bunch-
grass range has forage depletion been halted or the range improved
(tables 24 and 25, pp. 115 and 116) ; and still further deterioration
may be expected on the remainder.
TABLE 9. — Depletion of virgin range in the Pacific-l)unchgrass type ly ownership
and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
502
0
0
0
Per-
cent
29
0
0
0
1,000
acres
779
39
220
308
Per-
cent
46
9
13
36
1,000
acres
433
236
878
360
Per-
cent
25
51
52
42
1,000
acres
0
186
591
195
Per-
cent
0
40
35
22
1,000
acres
1,714
461
1,689
863
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain — grazing
districts
Other Federal
AllWederal
502
50
2,932
11
3
8
1,346
725
13, 521
28
38
38
1,907
962
17, 852
40
61
50
972
157
1,608
21
8
4
4,727
1,894
35,913
100
100
100
Rtat.A"and>.nunty
Private "
All ownerships _
3,484
8
15, 592
37
20,721
49
2,737
6
42,534
100
92 THE WESTERN RANGE
SEMIDESERT GRASS
The chief range of the Southwest is that characterized by the nu-
tritious grasses of the semidesert-grass type (fig. 25), which retain
their palatability during the mild winters of this region. In Ari-
zona this type is much used for winter sheep grazing; for yearling
cattle grazing in Arizona and New Mexico; and for cattle, sheep,
and goats in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas. More than half of
its 89 million acres is in private ownership.
Most of the semidesert-grass type shows a marked loss in forage
value from that of the virgin range. Three important plants —
alkali sacaton, sacaton, and bush muhly ("hoe grass") — have al-
most entirely disappeared from the type. Gully and arroyo ero-
sion has carved the soil from valleys that once supported magnificent
stands of the sacaton grasses (63). Hoe grass, which now is seldom
found except on areas inaccessible to livestock or as an occasional
tuft under the protection of cacti and thorny shrubs, was so abun-
dant in 1879 and 1880 that hundreds of tons were delivered as hay
to Government military posts in Arizona (12).
As the gramas and other valuable forage grasses disappear, the
range is being restocked with inferior grasses and weeds. A spe-
cific illustration of this shift in composition of the plant cover, based
on studies on the Rio Grande watershed in New Mexico, is given in
table 10.9 It will be noted that on conservatively grazed areas,
which to some extent indicate virgin range conditions, the palatable
forage grasses comprise nearly the whole plant cover, whereas on the
heavily grazed lands characteristic of much of the present range only
half of the cover consists of these valuable forage grasses. Dominat-
ing many areas formerly occupied by valuable forage grasses are
such poor grasses and worthless weeds as burrograss, ring muhly,
fluffgrass, three-awn ("poverty grass"), snakeweed, Russian-thistle,
and jimmyweed ("burroweed"). Cholla cactus has invaded many
square miles in central Arizona and on former grasslands creosote-
bush is encroaching. Drymaria, a deadly poisonous species, has
increased on overgrazed clay flats in New Mexico, and in southwest
Texas, bitter rubberweed, which also is poisonous, has appeared in
many places (30, 84) . In New Mexico, as the valuable black grama
disappears the range gradually becomes more and more an essen-
tially worthless mesquite-sand-dune shrub type (29).
TABLE 10. — Approximate composition of herbaceous cover on a semidesert-grass
range in New Mexico
Composition
Conserva-
tively
grazed
lands
Heavily
grazed
lands
Good grasses (black gram
Poor grasses (ring muhly,
Weeds and shrubs
n, hliifl grama, sido-oats grama)
Percent
85
6
9
Percent
50
10
40
dropseed, three-awn). ." '.
Total
100
100
9 Cooperrider, C. K., and Hendricks, B. A. Soil Erosion and Streamflow in Relation
to Land Resources and Human Welware on the Upper Rio Grande Watershed. U. S.
Dept. Agr. Tech. Bull. (In process of publication.)
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
93
A valuable forage plant which has come into the semidesert type
is alfileria, or "filaree." This plant appeared in the 1870's (143)
and is excellent feed in wet years, but since in this type it occurs
in abundance only in southern Arizona and produces a good crop
of feed only in occasional years, it does not fully compensate for
the loss of perennial grasses which it is replacing.
In addition to the loss of valuable forage plants, the plant cover
of the present semidesert-grass range is thinner. For example, on
the upper Rio Grande watershed in New Mexico it is estimated to
be only about 40 percent as thick as that of the virgin range. Other
studies on representative areas in the Trans-Pecos region of western
Texas also indicate that the plant cover on many present ranges is
scarcely 40 percent as thick as that on ungrazed areas in the same
region.
As a result of this marked thinning of the plant cover and the
widespread loss of valuable forage plants, the value of the semi-
desert range for feed has diminished greatly. Fully two-thirds of
Vi rgm
Range
Present
Range
0 I 234567
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) perMorvth
FIGURE 29. — Because of the serious loss in grazing capacity in the semidesert-grass
type, nearly 6^ acres is required per cow where 3 acres once furnished ample feed.
the semidesert range has less than half the forage value it once
possessed (table 11) and, as a whole, this range is one of the most
severely depleted range types of the entire West, as indicated by
the grazing-capacity comparison in figure 29.
TABLE 11. — Depletion of virgin range in the semidesert-grass type t>y ownership
and depletion classes
Moderate
Material
Severe
Extreme
Ownership or control
depletion
(0 to 25 per-
depletion
(26 to 50 per-
depletion
(51 to 75 per-
depletion
(76 to 100 per-
All depletion
classes
cent)
cent)
cent)
cent)
1,000
Per-
1,000
Per-
1,000
Per-
1,000
Per-
1,000
Per-
Federal:
acres
cent
acres
cent
acres
cent
acres
cent
acres
cent
National forests
50
3
809
49
470
29
307
19
1,636
100
Indian lands
162
1
579
5
11, 197
91
415
3
12,353
100
Public domain — grazing
districts
100
1
2,353
31
3,967
52
1,266
16
7,686
100
Other Federal
o
o
100
4
2,228
81
406
15
2,734
100
All Federal
312
1
3 841
16
17 862
73
2,394
10
24,409
100
State and county
366
2
6,806
42
9,054
55
214
1
16, 440
100
Private
1,639
3
14 621
30
30, 447
63
1,718
4
48, 425
100
All ownerships . . .
2,317
3
25,268
28
57, 363
64
4,326
5
89, 274
100
Aside from loss in forage values, the deterioration of the plant
cover has permitted the occurrence of destructive floods. Investiga-
94 THE WESTERN RANGE
tions in Arizona disclosed that thinning of the plant cover increased
run-off of summer rains and greatly accelerated the rate of soil loss.
One of a pair of lysimeter study plots, for example, had 51 percent
less grass cover than the other and on this plot the run-off of sum-
mer rainfall was 46 percent greater and the rate of soil loss almost
500 percent greater than on the adjoining plot with the thicker plant
cover.
The trend of range depletion is estimated to be downward on
about 90 percent of the semidesert-grass type (table 24, p. 115). The
most serious situation at present is on areas of long-established use
as in the Pecos, Rio Grande, Gila, and Santa Cruz Valleys where
prompt action must be taken to save these ranges. Although this
type is very susceptible to damage by overgrazing, and climatic con-
ditions make recovery slow and difficult, experience on the Tonto
National Forest hi central Arizona proves that if forage depletion
and soil erosion are not too far advanced, depleted ranges can be
restored. On this forest, certain semidesert-grass ranges deterio-
rated by year-long overstocking of cattle have been improved about
35 percent since 1927 by protecting the grasses during the growing
season and through conservative winter grazing.
SAGEBRUSH- GRASS
Third largest of all the range types and more than twice as large
as any other shrub type, the sagebrush-grass is an important part of
the forage resource and in many localities is the only range available
(fig. 30). With the exception of the true grass areas, the sage-
brush-grass ranges are potentially the most productive of any of the
range vegetation types. The northern portions are much used for
spring-fall range, and, because stockmen are dependent upon it for
feed in those seasons, it forms an indispensable link between the
winter and summer ranges.
The 96.5 million acres now in this type include an increase of about
6.5 million acres beyond the area occupied under virgin conditions.
This increase in area has been at the expense of bunchgrass in the
Pacific Northwest and short grass in Wyoming. Locally many grass
meadows also have been invaded by sagebrush. Thousands of acres
of sagebrush lands have been turned to crop agricultural purposes,
especially where irrigation was possible, but the greater portion of the
type still remains open range. Nearly half of the total area used as
range is open public domain, and over a third is privately owned.
Ill its original condition the sagebrush range consisted of a rather
sparse cover of sagebrush beneath which was a rich stand of palatable
perennial grasses and weeds. Today the sagebrush has thickened
greatly and in parts of Oregon, for example, has increased more than
60 percent. The palatable perennial grasses and weeds, however, have
almost entirely disappeared. Perennial grasses on the Snake River
Plains of Idaho are only one-fourth, and on representative areas in
Oregon but half as thick as on remnants of the virgin range. The
grass cover on sagebrush lands in central Nevada is only 10 percent,
in northern Nevada 24 percent, and in western Utah 36 percent as
thick as formerly. Over a large part of the type practically the only
feed left for livestock is the very inferior sagebrush itself.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
95
SAGEBRUSH - GRASS
SOUTHERN DESERT SHRUB
SALT-DESERT SHRUB
MILES 200
EASTERN LIMIT OF RANGE TERRITORY
FIGURE 30.— THE PRINCIPAL SHRUB TYPES OF THE PRESENT RANGE.
L of the southern desert-shrub type in the contiguous portions of California
Arizona is omitted, since these areas are virtually ungrazahle.
It is this tremendous loss of forage grasses and weeds that has
brought about the present low grazing capacity indicated in figure Sl-
it is estimated that grazing capacity in different parts of the type is
60 to 90 percent less than it was in pioneer days, as shown below :
Decline from virgin forage value : Percent
Southern Idaho 68
Eastern Oregon 65
Colorado and Wyoming 60-70
Western Colorado (badly depleted public domain) 90
Northern Nevada 71
Western Utah__ 69
96
THE WESTERN RANGE
For the type as a whole it is estimated that the forage on about 84
percent of the sagebrush-grass range has been severely or extremely
depleted and has been at least materially depleted on nearly all the
rest (table 12).
TABLE 12. — Depletion of virgin range in the sagebrusfi-grass type by ownership
and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
417
7
232
0
Per-
cent
11
0)
1
0
1
2
3
2
1,000
acres
2,455
1,612
2,509
2,531
Per-
cent
68
75
6
41
16
38
6
14
1,000
acres
733
470
22, 959
2,706
Per-
cent
20
22
53
44
49
41
46
47
1,000
acres
32
69
17, 537
910
Per-
cent
1
3
40
15
34
19
45
37
1,000
acres
3,637
2,158
43,237
6,147
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Indian lands. .
Public domain — grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal .
656
105
1,058
9,107
2,469
1,920
26,868
2,704
16, 076
18,548
1,280
15, 737
55, 179
6,558
34, 791
State and county
Private
All ownerships
1,819
13, 496
45,648
35, 565
96,528
1 Less than 0.5 percent.
036
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 31. — Grazing capacity in the sagebrush-grass type has fallen so low that more than
three times the acreage per cow is needed today that was required a century ago.
The virtual wrecking of this valuable resource can be traced
directly to the apparent indifference of those controlling the use of
the land. As shown in table 12, 93 percent of the public domain and
91 percent of the private areas of sagebrush exhibit severe or extreme
forage depletion. And 81 percent of the entire sagebrush type is
in these two ownerships.
Although the forage of this type already is greatly depleted, still
further deterioration can be expected, for estimates based on detailed
studies over a large part of the sagebrush-grass range indicate that
on about 90 percent forage depletion is continuing (tables 24 and
25, pp. 115 and 116) . Only immediate and drastic changes in existing
policies for handling grazing on these ranges will prevent destruc-
tion of the remaining forage.
SOUTHERN DESERT SHRUB
The southern desert-shrub type (fig. 30) has been of less impor-
tance than other types in the development of the range industry.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
97
Scant rainfall and extremely high temperatures have made most of
the type a desert with practically no dependable feed for livestock.
Only about 27 million of the 51 million acres in this type is usable
range and most of this can be used for but a few weeks in favorable
years. The practice is to use the range whenever feed and stock
water are available, thereby reserving adjoining ranges or saving
the expense of hay, cottonseed cake, and other supplemental feed.
To this extent, the southern desert-shrub type is of some local
importance.
More than half of the type is still in public ownership, chiefly
as unreserved public domain. The private land is concentrated in
irrigation projects such as the lower Rio Grande development in
New Mexico, and the Salt River Valley project of central Arizona.
Many attempts have been made to raise livestock in the southern
desert-shrub type, but without irrigation these have often failed.
The sagging ruins of windmill towers and the sunbleached boards of
tumbling shacks are all that remain to tell the story of efforts that
quickly destroyed themselves.
Virgin
Range
Present
Range
0 4 8 12
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGUEB 32. — Where 4% acres per cow sufficed on the original southern desert-shrub
range, grazing capacity has so fallen off that nearly 12 acres are required today.
Even in its virgin condition ? dependable forage production in this
type was low and was restricted to small areas of grassland in
drainage ways, depressions, and flood plains. Most of the grass on
these alluvial areas has been destroyed. Worthless shrubs such as
creosotebush, tarbush, and mesquite are rapidly taking possession of
the remaining grass areas. The only abundant forage production
of the desert is the luxuriant growth of winter and spring annuals
which flourish in favorable years. At such times, alfileria, Indian-
wheat, bur-clover, milkvetch, and sixweeks fescue carpet the desert
valleys. Most important of all is alfileria, which appeared about
1870 along the freighting and stage routes in southern Arizona.
Examinations on the Rio Grande watershed indicate that near
the upper limits of the type the original plant cover was composed of
grasses and of weeds and browse in the ratio of about 4 to 1, whereas
the plant cover of the present range in that locality now has 77
percent weeds and browse and only 23 percent grass. Moreover, the
cover of the present range is only about one-third as thick as that
of the virgin range. The result, as expressed in grazing capacity, is
a great loss in range values, as shown in figure 32.
About 81 percent of the usable southern desert-shrub range is
severely or extremely depleted (table 13). On the relatively small
64946— 3(
98
THE WESTERN RANGE
accessible grazing area of the type, forage depletion has proceeded
so far, and climatic conditions are so severe, that restoration of the
range will be exceedingly difficult and very slow.
TABLE 13. — Depletion of virgin range in the southern desert-shrub type by own-
ership and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-60 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
0
0
0
0
Per-
cent
0
0
0
0
1,000
acres
50
0
1,363
0
Per-
cent
51
0
21
0
1,000
acres
8
2,331
3,594
1,300
Per-
cent
8
97
56
85
1,000
acres
40
78
1,467
230
Per-
cent
41
3
23
15
1,000
acres
98
2,409
6,424
1,530
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain— grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
0
0
0
0
0
0
1,413
1,252
2,343
14
22
22
7,233
4,300
5,548
69
74
52
1,815
240
2,752
17
4
26
10, 461
5,792
10,643
100
100
100
State and county
Private
All ownerships
0
0
5,008
19
17, 081
63
4,807
18
26,896
100
SALT-DESERT SHRUB
The salt-desert shrub (fig. 30), though only a moderately pro-
ductive range type, is important because it provides winter range
for about 6,000,000 sheep in Utah, central Nevada, Colorado, and
Wyoming.
The present area of the salt-desert range, about 41,000,000 acres,
is essentially the same as under virgin conditions. The alkaline sub-
soil has prevented the encroachment of adjoining vegetation types
and, as the low productivity of the soil and the scanty rainfall have
discouraged settlers from utilizing the land for crops, most of the
salt-desert type is still used as open range. Ownership, as in the
virgin range, rests largely with the Federal Government as unreserved
public domain.
Although the salt-desert-shrub type has changed but little in area
or ownership, it is by no means in its virgin forage condition. Some
of the main forage plants have almost disappeared from the type
and have been replaced by unpalatable species. The extermination
of valuable grasses and shrubs and their replacement by inferior
species is especially evident on some of the valley plains. Here on
the somewhat damper soils of the bottomlands, the once abundant
giant wild-rye has been almost entirely replaced by nearly worthless
greasewood. On the much more extensive, drier, and less saline soils
of the valley plains the valuable ricegrass and dropseed have been
so extensively killed out that they probably can be restored only by
artificial reseeding. Except for a few fringes, vast areas of the
palatable and nutritious winterf at, or "whitesage", have been replaced
by shadscale and little rabbitbrush. In the Ked Desert region of
southwestern Wyoming the almost worthless rabbitbrush and snake-
weed have displaced valuable forages on large tracts and are rapidly
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
99
dominating many other parts of the range. Thus, while remnants of
the virgin range have an average of only 59 rabbitbrush and 41
snakeweed plants per 2,000 square feet, heavily grazed areas of the
present range have 193 rabbitbrush and 196 snakeweed plants per
2,000 square feet of range, or virtual domination of the plant cover
by these worthless species.
Besides having a smaller proportion of valuable forage plants,
the plant cover on the salt-desert ranges is thinner now than in
pioneer days. An analysis of over 1,700 sample plots indicates that
the plant cover of the present range averages in western Utah only
55 percent, in central Nevada 78 percent, and in southwestern Wyo-
ming about 67 percent as dense as that on small remnant areas of
virgin or lightly grazed ranges.
The recent drought is responsible for a part of the current reduc-
tion in plant density but is not as serious a factor in range deple-
tion as is commonly assumed. Investigations in southwestern Wyo-
ming and in western Utah show conclusively that during the 1931-35
drought from 3 to 10 times as many plants have died on heavily
grazed areas as on nearby ungrazed or very lightly grazed portions
of the range (table 14) (136).
TABLE 14. — Death losses of valuable forage plants in the salt-desert- shrul) type
during the 1931-35 drought
Species
Western Utah
Southwestern Wyo-
ming
Lightly
grazed
Heavily
grazed
Lightly
grazed
Heavily
grazed
Ricegrass
Percent
24
11
Percent
89
67
Percent
Percent
Winterfat..
11
5
2
31
40
20
Bud sagebrush
Nuttall salt bush
Forage values, because of these several aspects of plant depletion,
have shrunk greatly in the salt- desert-shrub type. The average
forage values on Nevada ranges are estimated to be only 49 percent
of those on areas protected from grazing; in Utah, 36 percent; and
in southwestern Wyoming, 43 percent. Resident stockmen who have
operated from 12 to 55 years on this range type estimate that the
present open range is as much as 80 percent less valuable as forage
than it was half a century ago. Of the 41 million acres in the salt-
desert-shrub type, almost 90 percent has less than half the forage
value of the virgin salt-desert range (table 15). The relation of
land ownership to the status of range depletion in the salt-desert
type is clearly indicated in this table. It is significant that 75 per-
cent of the type is public domain and that 90 percent of the public-
domain area is severely or extremely depleted. Grazing capacity
in this type has been reduced relatively more than in any of the
other types, as indicated in figure 33.
100
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 15. — Depletion of virgin range in the salt-desert-shrub type, by ownership
and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(2&-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent )
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
181
5
0
25
Per-
cent
49
0)
o
i
1,000
acres
178
708
3,157
125
Per-
cent
49
43
10
6
1,000
acres
7
894
13, 876
200
Per-
cent
2
54
45
10
1,000
acres
0
50
13, 624
1,650
Per-
cent
0
3
45
83
1,000
acres
366
1,657
30, 657
2,000
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain — grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
211
0
61
i
0
1
4,168
21
140
12
2
3
14, 977
250
2,374
43
27
45
15,324
656
2,677
44
71
51
34,680
927
5,251
100
100
100
State and county
Private
All ownerships
271
1
4,329
10
17,601
43
18, 657
46
40, 858
100
Less than 0.5 percent.
During the past 30 years the forage values on over 85 percent of
the type have been declining, and the present trend also is down-
ward (tables 24 and 25, pp. 115 and 116). As indicated in table 25,
only 1 percent of the type is exhibiting any appreciable improve-
ment in forage values.
O 6 12 18
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 33. — The greatest falling-off in grazing capacity is to be found in the salt-desert-
shrub type, where more than three and one-half times the acreage per cow is now
required.
PINON- JUNIPER
The pinon-juniper type extends as far north as south-central Ore-
gon, but is of value for forage mainly in Arizona, New Mexico, and
southern Colorado (fig. 34). It is much used for spring-fall range
and in some places as winter range, for which it is valuable because
its grasses cure naturally on the stalk and because the trees afford
protection to livestock.
There has been very little change in the total area of the pinon-
juniper type during the past century. The rocky slopes and flat-
topped mesas on which it is commonly found are not adapted to
crop agriculture, and very little of the original pinon-juniper type
has been diverted to agricultural crops. Three- fourths of the 76
million acres in the present pinon-juniper range is divided among
public domain, national forests, and private holdings.
On two-thirds of this type the forage is either materially or
severely depleted, and on an additional fourth it is extremely de-
pleted (table 16). This loss in forage value probably has resulted
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
101
from a general thinning of the herbaceous cover rather than from
extensive changes in its composition. For example, on pinon-juniper
ranges of the upper Kio Grande watershed in New Mexico, grasses
which originally made up about 80 percent of the herbaceous cover
still hold this position, except on the most severely depleted areas.
/////I PINON-JUNIPER
H WOODLAND-CHAPARRAL
OPEN FOREST
FIGURE 34.— THE PRINCIPAL FOREST TYPES OF THE PRESENT RANGE.
Much of the open-forest type is on the national forests. Woodland-chaparral is wholly
a California type.
The average density of this herbaceous vegetation, however, is in
that region less than half what it was in the virgin condition. The
more northerly pinon-juniper ranges probably had a thin cover of
herbaceous vegetation even before the white man began to use those
ranges and, with long-continued and excessive use, the forage plants
102
THE WESTERN RANGE
have practically vanished from many portions of the type in Ne-
vada, Utah, and Oregon. There is also little doubt that the general
thickening of the tree stand throughout the type has still further
reduced the area which can be occupied by herbaceous plants.
Many of the small grassy "parks" characteristic of the type have
filled up with trees, and the junipers frequently have taken posses-
sion of meadows adjoining the type, thus gradually reducing the
amount of space available for grass and other forage.
TABLE 16. — Depletion of virgin range in the pinon-juniper type, by ovmersUip
and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
3,462
132
398
25
Per-
cent
25
1
2
1
1,000
acres
5,581
1,248
2,022
300
Per-
cent
41
12
9
6
1,000
acres
4,169
8,214
8,948
1,500
Per-
cent
30
80
40
33
1,000
acres
599
758
10,934
2,736
Per-
cent
4
7
49
60
1,000
acres
13, 811
10, 352
22, 302
4,561
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain — Grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
4,017
309
1,652
8
8
8
9,151
958
6,332
18
25
30
22,831
682
8,675
45
18
42
15, 027
1,853
4,241
29
49
20
51, 026
3,802
20,900
100
100
100
State and county
Private .
All ownerships
5,978
8
16,441
22
32, 188
42
21, 121
28
75,728
100
As a result of the general thinning of the plant cover and the
rather widespread shrinkage in the area available for the herbaceous
vegetation between the trees, the grazing capacity has declined
throughout the type. On heavily used ranges in the Eio Grande
Basin of New Mexico, it is estimated that the grazing capacity is,
on the average, only about half of what it was originally, and many
ranges in that locality show a loss of over 80 percent. Severely over-
grazed pinon- juniper ranges in south-central Arizona also are be-
lieved to have lost about three-fourths of their grazing capacity.
The reduction in the type as a whole is indicated in figure 35.
Vi rg i n
Range
Present
Range
0369
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 35.— Estimated grazing capacity of the pifion-juniper type under virgin-range
conditions has been reduced by more than half.
The most widespread and serious forage depletion in the pifion-
juniper type is, as shown in table 16, on the public domain, Indian
lands, and privately owned ranges. Under these three forms of
control more than half of the entire area of the pinon- juniper type
has lost from 50 to 100 percent of its forage value.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL,
' 103
This reduction in forage values is not a recent development. Dur-
ing the last 25 or 30 years nearly three-fourths of the piflon- juniper
type has steadily deteriorated as a forage resource (table 24, p. 115) .
During this period scarcely one-fifth of the total area in the type
has shown any improvement whatever, and practically all of this is
on the national forests of the Southwest.
WOODLAND- CHAPARRAL
The woodland-chaparral type occurs chiefly in California, where
it forms a transition zone between the grassy pastures and crop lands
of the Great Central Valley and the timbered areas of the higher
mountains; it also covers extensive areas in the coast ranges (fig.
34.) The lower portions of this type are open woodlands containing
valuable forage and are much used for fall, winter, and spring
grazing. The upper portions are mostly chaparral, impenetrable
thickets of brush of low value or unfit for grazing but extremely
valuable in watershed protection and in preventing flood damage to
lower areas.
In California the type is estimated to cover about 19 million acres,
of which approximately 13.4 million acres are open to grazing.
The type has increased about 3.5 million acres during the past cen-
tury. About 70 percent of this expansion has been at the expense of
adjoining areas of commercial timber, as a result of fire and logging.
Ownership of the present woodland-chaparral range is largely
private, only about 20 percent being in public ownership.
The make-up of the herbaceous plant cover in this type has under-
gone tremendous changes within the past century. More than 30
years ago, at least one valuable forage plant, California oatgrass,
had become scarce in certain parts of the type (1$). Other good
forage plants, such as needlegrass and oniongrass are now much
less abundant. Partially replacing the plants lost from the type
are three valuable immigrants which have appeared in consider-
able quantity : Alfileria, slender oat, and bur-clover. Unfortunately,
most of the other immigrant plants are of very little value as feed
for livestock and at least one of them is poisonous. St. Johnswort,
or "Klamath weed", an aggressive and poisonous introduced plant,
was first observed by stockmen about 1900 and is now estimated to
have spread over more than 100,000 acres of California grazing
lands in this and adjoining types (117). Other uninvited guests,
more especially foxtail chess, ripgut grass, and other species of chess
or "cheatgrass ' having stiff beards (awns), mature early and, because
of mechanical injury, force the removal of sheep from many parts of
the range. The prevalence of foreign plants in this range type was
strikingly illustrated by a survey in the San Joaquin Valley where
on 907 sample plots, the exotic plants were found to make up 59
percent of the plant cover in the woodland portions of the type and
51 percent in the chaparral.
Extensive replacement of good forage plants by species of little
or no forage value has occurred throughout the type. On a small
ungrazed area near Sonora, Calif., it was found that 95 percent
of the grasses and herbs originally present were palatable and nutri-
tious, whereas only 36 percent of the grasses and herbs on adjacent
grazed areas are suitable for feed (table 17). A survey in the
104
THE WESTERN RANGE
woodland portion of the type in the San Joaquin Valley gave still
further evidence of the replacement of valuable perennials by in-
ferior annual grasses and weeds: Sample plots on ungrazed areas
there have an average of about 69 percent perennial and 31 per-
cent annual plants, but plots on typical nearby grazed areas indicate
that the herbaceous vegetation of the present range has only 2 per-
cent perennials but 98 percent annuals.
The herbaceous plant cover is, over most of the type, as thick
now as it was before the range was used by domestic livestock. As
has been noted, new plants have come into the type in sufficient num-
bers to replace completely those which have disappeared. Even
though the herbaceous cover is as thick as formerly, however, the
total area available for grazing is smaller because existing brush
thickets have expanded and new ones have appeared. Thus, the
decline in grazing capacity shown in figure 36 is attributable both
to the smaller percentage of valuable forage plants and to the smaller
area available for forage production.
Virgin
Range
Present
Range
0 2 4 6 8 10
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 36. — Reduction in grazing capacity in the woodland-chaparral type since pioneer
days is estimated at 50 percent.
TABLE 17. — Approximate composition of the herbaceous cover on virgin and
present ranges in the woodland-chaparral type
Composition
Small rem-
nant of the
virgin
range
Present
(grazed)
range
Percent
90
Percent
0
Annual grasses and herbs:
5
36
5
64
Total -
100
100
It is estimated that the forage is severely depleted on fully one-
half of the present woodland-chaparral range, and at least materially
depleted on the remainder (table 18). Moreover, depletion is con-
tinuing on about three-fourths of the type (tables 24 and 25). This
depletion results chiefly from the grass and, brush fires which sweep
across the foothill country. Woodland-chaparral ranges in all own-
erships have suffered alike from fire. Even though most of these
ranges are privately owned, high watershed and wildlife values of
the type are of great public importance and concerted public and
private action is needed to exclude fire from the woodland-chaparral
ranges.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
105
TABLE 18. — Depletion of virgin range in the woodland-chaparral type
ownership and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
12
0
0
0
Per-
cent
2
0
0
0
1,000
acres
500
72
796
60
Per-
cent
70
92
47
50
1,000
acres
200
6
897
60
Per-
cent
28
8
53
50
1,000
acres
0
0
0
0
Per-
cent
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
1,000
acres
712
78
1,693
120
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain— grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
12
0
150
P)o
1
1,428
83
4,826
55
51
45
1,163
80
5,490
45
49
52
0
0
174
2,603
163
10, 640
100
100
100
State and county. . .
Private
All ownerships
162
1
6,337
48
6,733
50
174
1
13, 406
100
i Less than 0.5 percent.
OPEN FORESTS
Open forests are a prominent part of the grazing resource. These
forests of more or less widely spaced trees with intermingled grassy
meadows and browse thickets comprise the second largest (126 mil-
lion acres) of all the range types (fig. 34) and the most widely dis-
tributed. It includes such diverse forms as nearly pure stands of
ponderosa pine, ponderosa pine with sugar pine or Douglas fir, aspen
and fir, spruce and fir, alpine grasslands, and mountain brush. Much
of it occurs on steep hillsides. Although used to some extent as
spring-fall range, the open-forest type is preeminently a summer
range. Much of it lies at high altitudes where the snow remains
late in the spring and forage generally does not become available to
livestock as early as in other range types. Portions of the type
which lie at lower elevations ordinarily are used for spring-fall
range.
Of the 126 million acres of open-forest range, about half is in large
blocks under national-forest supervision and a little more than a
third is in much smaller, more widely scattered privately owned
units.
Forage depletion in the open-forest type has resulted, as in other
range types, from the replacement of good forage plants by poor
ones, and from a general thinning of the herbaceous cover. In addi-
tion, the development of dense thickets of young trees or brush, de-
sirable as this may be for timber production or watershed protection,
has reduced the area available for forage plants.
The most serious forage depletion is on the numerous grassy
meadows scattered through the type, which, though relatively small
in total area, formerly had a very large part of the best forage.
Replacement of palatable species by plants of inferior grazing value
is especially evident here. On representative forest meadows in
Oregon and Washington where tufted hairgrass originally was 90
percent of the ground cover, it is now only 50 percent, having been
replaced by dandelion, knotweed, and senecio. In the ponderosa
pine forests of the Coconino Plateau in Arizona, grasses are 90 per-
cent and unpalatable weeds 2 percent of the herbaceous cover on
lightly grazed meadows? whereas on heavily grazed areas grasses are
106 THE WESTEKN KANGE
only 10 percent and unpalatable weeds 75 percent of the cover. On
some forest meadows of Montana, redtop, alpine bluegrass, sheep
fescue, oatgrass, gentian, and alpine willows have dwindled in num-
bers, giving way to weeds of low palatability. In the ponderosa pine
forests of Montana and northern Idaho it is reported that such for-
age grasses as wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, and bluegrass are scarcer,
and that downy chess ("cheatgrass") and inferior weeds are increas-
ing. In the Southwest, mountain-mahogany, cliffrose, and other
highly palatable browse species are being replaced in many places by
the much less palatable manzanita and skunkbush.
Likewise the greatest changes in the density of the herbaceous
cover have occurred in the forest meadows, "parks", and alpine grass-
lands. Cattle congregate on such areas and, because feed is more
abundant and herding easier, it is difficult to prevent overuse by
sheep. In some parts of the ponderosa pine forests of northern
Arizona it is estimated that the herbaceous cover on these mountain
parks is only 45 percent as thick as on similar areas where livestock
have not congregated. An analysis of results obtained by measuring
the herbaceous cover on nearly 1,200 plots in the open forests and
mountain meadows of Colorado and Wyoming indicates the following
reductions in density of plant cover:
Reduction from density of virgin range : Percent
Open lodgepole pine 11
Ponderosa pine 21
Alpine meadows 34
Aspen forests 45
Oak brush 45
In some parts of the type the density of the herbaceous cover has
been reduced to practically nothing through development of dense
thickets of pine reproduction. These thickets vary from a few square
feet to several acres in size and effectively shade out the herbaceous
plants. Thus, although the total acreage classified as open-forest
type may remain constant, the net area available for forage plants
may be considerably smaller. On the Sitgreaves National Forest in
Arizona, it is estimated that the development of dense pine thickets
on some parts of that forest has been an important factor in reduc-
ing the grazing capacity of that range fully 25 percent in the last
20 years. Dense thickets of young pine trees frequently occur on
logged-over areas of ponderosa pine forests and reduce the amount
of space available for forage production as do similar thickets in
the uncut forests. Expansion of brush on logged-over areas also
materially decreases the space available for herbaceous plants. A
notable example is the 10-mile advance on a 30-mile front of chap-
arral thickets on cut-over pine lands in Eldorado County, Calif.
(18Ji). These trees and brush thickets are, however, highly desirable
for maintenance of the timber supplies and for watershed protection
and it should also be appreciated that the loss in forage may be
merely temporary while the trees are attaining maturity.
The net result of increased numbers of inferior species, less density
of vegetation, and the incursion of thickets is expressed in the
reduced grazing capacity shown in figure 37.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL,
107
Forage conditions on the open-forest range as a whole are better
than in any other type except the tall-grass (table 21, p. 111). But
these conditions vary widely with ownership. As shown in table 19,
forage depletion has reached an advanced stage under some forms of
ownership or land management. About one-half of the type is in
the national forests, and a majority of the national-forest ranges
have less than 25-percent forage depletion. Forest ranges under
other forms of Federal control are, as shown in table 19, largely de-
Virgm
Range
Present
Range
0246
Acres Required per Cow (5 Sheep) per Month
FIGURE 37. — Estimated original and present grazing capacity in the open-forest type,
where nearly half again the range area per animal unit is now required.
pleted materially or worse. About one-fourth of the privately
owned forest ranges and about the same proportion of State and
county lands in this type are in reasonably good condition.
TABLE 19. — Depletion of virgin range in the open-forest type by ownership and
depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
35, 670
1,441
581
100
Per-
cent
55
20
13
6
1,000
acres
24, 349
4,437
749
857
Per-
cent
37
62
17
49
1,000
acres
4,412
1,156
2,194
773
Per-
cent
7
16
51
44
1,000
acres
354
156
811
9
Per-
cent
1
2
19
1
1,000
acres
64,785
7,190
4,335
1,739
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands.
Public domain — grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
37, 792
1,250
12, 116
48
26
28
30, 392
2,081
20,188
39
44
46
8,535
1,103
9,073
11
23
21
1,330
316
2,191
2
7
5
78,049
4,750
43,568
100
100
100
State and county
Private ...
All ownerships . ..
51, 158
40
52, 661
42
18, 711
15
3,837
3
126, 367
100
The close connection between ownership and degree of forage
depletion is illustrated by a recent survey in the open forests of
Colorado, Wyoming, and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Detailed
studies on nearly 1,200 sample plots (table 20) indicate that the
average loss in forage values from virgin forage conditions is as
follows: Lands under national-forest management, 25 percent; pri-
vately owned ranges, 41 percent; and public domain, 63 percent.
It should be noted that these average relationships also hold for
smaller portions of the type, indicating that form of management
rather than local variation in the type itself is responsible for these
large differences in forage depletion.
108
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 20. — Decline in range forage value as related to ownership (or control)
of range lands in the open-forest type in Colorado, Wyoming, and South
Dakota
Type
National
forest
Private
Public
domain
Ponderosa pine
Percent
21.8
Percent
29.2
Percent
Alpine meadows
20.2
68.6
Aspen forests
31 6
71 9
Oak brush
17.4
56.7
63.3
Average loss (weighted) .. _
25
41
63
Such differences are likely to be even larger in the future. The
national-forest ranges, when placed under management in 1905, were
for the most part in about the same condition as other public and
privately owned ranges are today. Before creation of the national
forests these areas were "free range" and were misused by local
stockmen in much the same way as the present unreserved public
domain. Early records of the Forest Service, amply substantiated
by statements of local residents, describe many national-forest ranges
in this type as being little better than "dust beds" almost devoid of
forage plants. Although these national-forest ranges are not yet
restored to full grazing capacity, the remarkable improvement which
has been obtained during the past 30 years proves that with sys-
tematic management the remaining open-forest ranges now in poor
condition can be reclaimed. It is estimated that nearly 60 percent
of the open-forest type has shown appreciable improvement during
the past quarter century but that the forage values on about 25 per-
cent are being still further decreased (table 24, p. 115). During the
past 5 years, as shown in table 25 (p. 116) , the recent unprecedented
drought (abetted probably by other factors) has caused a temporary
shift in trends, and only about 35 percent of the open-forest ranges
are at present thought to be improving in forage value.
UNGRAZED AREAS
Of the 974,548,480 acres gross area of the present western range
country, over 245 million cannot be used for grazing. Of these,
68 million acres are in dense forests ; 10 116 million acres in farms ;
slightly over 2 million acres are in cities, towns, railroad, and high-
way rights-of -way ; and 59 million acres are barren or inaccessible.
In addition, about 8.4 million acres of grazable land are at present
closed to grazing in order to safeguard water supplies or for other
reasons.
A CENTURY'S TOLL IN "FREE USE" OF THE RANGE
The figures given in table 5 indicated radical changes in area and
ownership throughout the range area, but even more sweeping than
these are the changes that have occurred in the forage resource itself,
10 Several million acres of pasture in the dense forest type are not included in this
68 million acres. The total area of these pastures is so small that a separate type
classification could not be established and they are included therefore in other range
types.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
109
51-75% DEPLETION
MORE THAN 75% DEPLETION
FIGURE 38.— DEGREE AND EXTENT OF FORAGE DEPLETION ON THE PRESENT
RANGE.
Severe depletion (51—75 percent) and extreme depletion (76—100 percent) predominate
throughout the West, save in the resilient tall-grass, short-grass, and Pacific bunch-
grass types. (The white areas of primarily nonrange land comprise chiefly agri-
cultural land, desert, and dense forest.)
110
THE WESTEKN RANGE
as the foregoing type descriptions have made clear. These have in-
volved striking adjustments in the composition of the vegetation
cover. Valuable forage plants, such as bluebunch wheatgrass, giant
wild-rye, and ricegrass have entirely disappeared, or almost so, from
several range types; palatable plants, such as "little bluestem",
buffalo grass, grama, wild-rye, and winterfat have been replaced by
such unpalatable plants as snakeweed, cactus, greasewood, shadscale,
and rabbitbrush; perennial grasses have given way to much less
nutritious annual grasses, in some types changing the herbaceous
cover from 75 percent or more perennial grasses to 60 or YO percent
annual grasses. Foreign plants, many of them nearly worthless or
even poisonous, have appeared in large numbers. The forage re-
source of the present range also differs from that of the virgin range
in that the whole plant cover is much thinner; in many instances
the present cover is less than half as thick as it was a few decades
ago. And, in some parts of the range, there is less soil space avail-
able for forage plants because of the development of dense thickets
of brush or young trees.
FIGURE 39.— DEGREE OF DEPLETION IN FORAGE TYPES.
The types least depleted are the resilient tall-grass and the open-forest, half of which
is in the national forests.
TABLE 21. — Depletion of virgin, range forage by types and depletion classes
Type
Moderate de-
pletion (0-
25 percent)
Material de-
pletion (26-
50 percent)
Severe de-
pletion (51-
75 percent)
Extreme de-
pletion (76-
100 percent)
All de-
pletion
classes
Tall grass
1,000
acres
13,589
16, 047
3,484
2,317
1,819
0
271
5,978
162
51, 158
Per-
cent
73.4
8.1
8.2
2.6
1.9
0
0.7
7.9
1.2
40.5
1,000
acres
4,175
101, 690
15, 592
25,268
13, 496
5,008
4,329
16, 441
6,337
52, 661
Per-
cent
22.6
51.3
36.7
28.3
14.0
18.6
10.6
21.7
47.3
41.7
1,000
acres
0
54,424
20, 721
57, 363
45, 648
17, 081
17,601
32, 188
6,733
18, 711
Per-
cent
0
27.5
48.7
64.3
47.3
63.5
43.1
42.5
50.2
14.8
1,000
acres
749
25,931
2,737
4,326
35, 565
4,807
18, 657
21, 121
174
3,837
Per-
cent
4.0
13.1
6.4
4.8
36.8
17.9
45.6
27.9
1.3
3.0
1,000
acres
18, 513
198, 092
42, 534
89, 274
96, 528
26, 896
40,858
75, 728
13,406
126, 367
Short grass _
Pacific bunchgrass.
Semidesert grass
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub .
Pinon-juniper
Woodland-chaparral . ..
Open forests
All types
94, 825
13.0
244, 997
33.7
270, 470
37.1
117,904
16.2
728, 196
These changes in the character of the forage resource have greatly
lessened its value (fig. 38). It is estimated that the forage on about
55 percent of the present range is severely or extremely depleted
and has less than half its former value (table 21). Only 15 percent
of the total area of the present range is in reasonably satisfactory
condition. The relative average depletion in the range types is
shown in figure 39. The tall-grass prairies, with three-fourths of
their total acreage having but moderate depletion, is in the best
condition of any range type (fig. 40). The open-forest type of
which 40 percent is only moderately depleted, and 18 percent severely
or extremely depleted, is second best. The salt-desert-shrub type
apparently is in the worst condition, since on nearly nine-tenths of
its total area forage values have fallen 50 to 100 percent. The
southern desert shrub, the sagebrush-grass, the semidesert grass, and
the pifion-juniper types are now worth for forage scarcely a third
of what they were a few decades ago.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
111
The primary cause of forage depletion is poor management. For
example, it is well known that the unreserved public domain has been
treated as "free range", open to any number of livestock and subject
to no regulations designed to maintain its productivity. As a con-
sequence 84 percent of the public domain has lost more than half
its forage value (table '22) and the entire area has been depleted an
average of 67 percent (table 23). The national-forest ranges, on the
Tall Grass
Short Grass__
Pacific Bunchgrass
Semi desert Grass
Sagebrush-Grass
Southern Desert
Shrub
Salt- Desert Shrub
Pi non-Juniper
Wood land-Chaparral
Open Forest
All Types
C
y///////////////\
y/////////////^^^^
w////////////////^^^^
y//////////////^
^///////////////////^^^
^/////////////^^^
w///////////////^
y/////////////////////^^
'/////////////////^^^
////////////////^^^
r
) 25 50 75
PERCENT
other hand, though in poor condition when put under regulation and
though used continuously by large numbers of livestock have been
handled so as to perpetuate and build up the forage resource. As
a result of this better management, only 14 percent of these Federal
grazing lands are in the severely or extremely depleted classes (fig.
41). Unfortunately, these demonstrated improvements in national-
forest ranges can have but a minor influence in halting depletion on
the western range as a whole, for the national-forest ranges consti-
tute only 12 percent of the total grazable area in the West.
With destruction of the plant cover has come soil deterioration.
As emphasized in another part of this report, sheet and gully erosion
112
THE WESTERN RANGE
PERCENT
100
100
75
50
25
0
100
75
50
25
SAGEBRUSH-
GRASS
PINON-
JUNIPER
SOUTHERN
DESERT SHRUB
WOODLAND-
CHAPARRAL
SALT-
DESERT SHRUB
OPEN
FOREST
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
DEPLETION CLASSES (PERCENT)
FIGURE 40. — DEGREES OF DEPLETION IN EACH TYPE.
Losses in forage values range from the very favorable condition in the tall-grass to the
desperate situation in the shrub types.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL
113
PERCENT
100
50
25
0
100
75
50
25
PUBLIC DOMAIN
AND GRAZING
DISTRICTS
NATIONAL
FORESTS
OTHER
FEDERAL
STATE AND
COUNTY
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
0- 26- 51- 76-
25 50 75 100
DEPLETION CLASSES (PERCENT)
FIGUBB 41.— DEPLETION IN THE DIFFERENT OWNERSHIP CLASSES
The advantages of grazing management are indicated by the small percentages of severe
or extreme depletion on the national-forest ranges in contrast with other ownerships.
64946—36 9
114
THE WESTERN RANGE
are appearing on many western ranges, washing away the fertile
topsoil and preventing reestablishment of the plant cover.
TABLE 22. — Depletion of virgin-range forage ly ownership and depletion classes
Ownership or control
Moderate
depletion
(0-25 percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50 percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75 percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100 per-
cent)
All depletion
classes
Federal:
National forests
1,000
acres
40,897
3,171
1,868
463
Per-
cent
46.5
6.6
1.5
2.0
1,000
acres
35, 172
17,328
18,320
4,871
Per-
cent
40.0
35.8
14.3
21.2
1,000
acres
10, 553
26,128
61,168
11,527
Per-
cent
12.0
54.0
47.9
50.1
1,000
acres
1,332
1,764
46, 436
6,136
Per-
cent
1.5
3.6
36.3
26.7
1,000
acres
87, 954
48, 391
127, 792
22, 997
Per-
cent
100
100
100
100
Indian lands
Public domain — grazing
districts
Other Federal
All Federal
46, 399
4,676
43,750
16.1
7.1
11.7
75, 691
30,909
138, 397
26.4
47.2
36.9
109, 376
24,209
136, 885
38.1
37.0
36.4
55,668
5,722
56, 514
19.4
8.7
15.0
287, 134
65, 516
375, 546
100
100
100
State and county
Private
All ownerships-
94. 825
13.0
244,997
33.7
270, 470
37.1
117, 904
16.2
728, 196
100
TABLE 23. — Average forage depletion
Type
National
forests
Indian
lands
Public
domain-
grazing
districts
Other
Federal
All
Federal
State
and
county
Private
All
owner-
ships
Tall grass
Percent
12
Percent
20
Percent
12
Percent
12
Percent
14
Percent
12
Percent
22
Percent
21
Short grass . _
30
38
47
65
43
43
51
49
Pacific bunchgrass..
Semidesert grass
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert
shrub
37
53
40
60
70
62
45
63
68
58
71
63
59
65
56
66
55
60
86
63
54
51
57
58
50
64
71
63
51
55
67
62
Salt-desert shrub.. -
Pinon-juniper
26
41
52
61
71
72
81
76
70
61
80
64
74
56
71
60
Woodland-chaparraL
Open forests
44
26
39
38
51
56
50
47
49
29
50
40
51
38
50
33
All types
30
51
67
63
53
49
51
52
That drastic and immediate action is necessary on a large scale is
indicated not only by the present deplorable condition of most of
the western range but also by the present trends in forage deple-
tion, as shown in figure 42. It is estimated that fully 75 percent
of the present range has declined in forage value during the past
25 or 30 years and on only about 16 percent of the total grazable area
has there been any improvement in forage conditions during this
period (table 24). The only notable exceptions are (1) the tall-
grass prairies, of which about 60 percent have remained in good
condition or have improved, and (2) the open-forest ranges, which
have shown appreciable improvement on about 55 or 60 percent of
their area.
The least improvement in forage conditions has been on the
public-domain ranges, where only 2 percent of the area has improved
and over 90 percent has steadily deteriorated. The greatest improve-
ment during the past quarter century has been on national-forest
ranges, of which about 77 percent are believed to have improved
and forage depletion has at least been stopped on approximately 18
percent of the total area in these ranges.
THE WHITE MAN'S TOLL 115
TABLE 24. — Trends in range forage depletion for approximate period 1905-85
Type or ownership (or control)
Appreciable
improvement
in forage l
Appreciable
decline in
forage
Forage conditions
more or less
unchanged
Total
area
Tall grass
1,000
acres
11,239
10,446
2,637
2,083
3,420
44
270
14,929
653
72,687
Per-
cent
61
5
6
2
4
(2)
20
5
68
1,000
acres
6,354
185,006
35, 397
80, 717
87,104
25,911
35, 407
54,283
10, 521
31, 970
Per-
cent
34
94
83
91
90
96
86
72
78
25
1,000
acres
920
2,640
4,500
6,474
6,004
941
5,181
6,516
2,232
21, 710
Per-
cent
5
11
7
6
4
13
8
17
17
1,000
acres
18, 513
198, 092
42,534
89, 274
96, 528
26, 896
40, 858
75,728
13,406
126, 367
Short grass
Pacific bunchgrass
Seinidesert grass .
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub
Pinon-juniper
Woodland-chaparral
Open forests
Total
118, 408
67,880
4,875
2,697
1,532
4,479
36, 945
16
552, 670
3,885
36, 130
118, 148
18,685
57, 473
318, 349
76
57, 118
16, 189
7,386
6,947
2,780
3,564
20,252
8
728, 196
87,954
48, 391
127, 792
22, 997
65, 516
375, 546
Federal ownership and control:
National forests
77
10
2
7
7
10
5
75
93
81
88
85
18
15
5
12
5
5
Indian lands ...
Public domain — grazing districts-
Other Federal
State and county
Private
118,408
16
552, 670
76
57, 118
8
728, 196
Includes also those areas in satisfactory condition at beginning of period which are unchanged in con-
dit ion. 2 Less than 0.5 percent.
RANGE
TYPE
Southern
Desert Shrub
Salt-Desert
Shrub
Pinon\Juniper _
Woodland -
Chaparral _
Open Forest _
All Types
UPGRADE
OR UNCHANGED
DOWNGRADE
100
50 25 0 25 50
TOTAL AREA IN TYPE (PERCENT)
75
100
FIGURE 42. — THIRTY-YEAR TRENDS IN THE DIFFERENT RANGE TYPES.
Over a large portion of the vigorous tall-grass type, and also in the open forest, half of
which is under national-forest management, forage values are improving or at least
stationary. Downward trends in the greater part of the other types reflect mainly
the results of unrestrained use.
116
THE WESTERN RANGE
More recently (table 25), these proportions have changed for the
national forests. It is estimated that only about 50 percent of the
national-forest ranges are continuing to improve, although further
forage depletion has been stopped on about 32 percent of the total
area of national-forest ranges. The reason for this recent change
can be traced directly to the increase in number of livestock per-
mitted on the national forests during the World War, aggravated
by the recent exceptionally dry years. For various reasons, which
will be explained in a later chapter, it has not been possible to reduce
the number of livestock using these ranges to limits which officials
know to be necessary to preserve the forage. The recent droughts,
coming at a time when the range was overstocked even for normal
years, caused a still further decline in forage values. No appreciable
changes in forage depletion trends have been noted for other owner-
ships, since these (as shown in tables 24 and 25) already were 85
percent or more on the downgrade.
TABLE 25. — Trends in range forage depletion for approximate period 1930-35
Type or ownership (or control)
Appreciable
improvement
in forage l
Appreciable
decline in
forage
Forage conditions
more or less
unchanged
Total
area
Tall grass
1,000
acres
202
2,860
1,068
1,746
2,670
130
430
7,385
844
45,860
Per-
cent
2
3
2
3
1
10
6
36
1,000
acres
16, 767
186,907
34,666
82,002
88,769
21, 357
38,356
55,872
9,080
42,990
Per-
cent
91
94
81
92
92
79
94
74
68
34
1,000
acres
1,544
8,325
6,800
5,526
5,089
5,409
2,072
12,471
3,482
37, 517
Per-
cent
8
4
16
6
5
20
5
16
26
30
1,000
acres
18, 513
198, 092
42,534
89,274
96,528
26, 896
40,858
75,728
13,406
126, 367
Short grass
Pacific bunchgrass
Semidesert grass . .
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub
Pinon-juniper
Wooland-chaparral
Open forests
Total
63,195
9
576, 766
79
88,235
12
728, 196
Federal ownership and control:
National forests
42,894
1,953
1,255
568
1,969
14, 556
49
4
1
2
3
4
16, 821
36, 760
118, 673
18, 360
68,961
327, 191
19
76
93
80
90
87
28,239
9,678
7,864
4,069
4,586
33,799
32
20
6
18
7
9
87, 954
48, 391
127, 792
22,997
65, 516
375, 546
Indian lands
Public domain— grazing districts-
Other Federal
State and county ._
Private
Total
63,195
9
576, 766
79
88,235
12
728, 196
1 Includes also those areas in satisfactory condition at beginning of period which are unchanged in con-
dition.
The need for range management is gradually being recognized.
Regulation similar to that practiced on the national forests for the
past 30 years is being put into effect on Indian lands, and more
recently, a part of the unreserved public domain has been organized
into grazing districts. But prompt action on a larger, much more
decisive scale is needed to prevent devastation of the forage resource.
Several range types already are nearly worthless. The forage of
all types has far less than its normal value. Forage depletion is
widespread. And forage depletion is continuing : bad conditions are
j. The "Great American Desert" of the Forty-niners'
getting worse
fancy is rapidly becoming just that in fact.
IV. HOW AND WHY
Information such as that already given on the range in its virgin
and present condition is necessary as a basis for the constructive
program, which is the fundamental purpose of this report. Equally
necessary is an understanding of the how and why of what has
happened. The story which follows in this chapter is mostly the
how and why of depletion, the historical events, the influence of a
climate not too favorable, the philosophy of range-resource man-
agement and how it has been reflected in the everyday use of the
range, the philosophy of land ownership and how it has been re-
flected in land legislation, interpretation, and administration, the
various financial forces — a complex interrelated group of causes
and forces which have blinded both range users and the public to
trends and consequences. In smaller degree the story is also of how
and why some ranges have been practically restored and some frag-
ments have been maintained in satisfactory condition.
117
HISTORY OF RANGE USE
By GEOKGE STEWART, Senior Forest Ecologist, Intermountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station
THE GREAT BOOM IN KANGE CATTLE, 1880-85
The first era of intensive use of western range by livestock coin-
cided with the great boom in range cattle, which was on the upswing
in 1880. By 1881 the price recovery from the 1873 depression gen-
erated in the grazing industry a tide of expansion which became a
veritable flood in 1883. That year, in Wyoming alone, 20 mammoth
cattle companies were organized with a total capitalization of more
than $12,000,000 (98). Of these, the Union Cattle Co. was incor-
porated for $2,000,000; and the North American Cattle Co. and the
Searight Cattle Co. for $1,000,000 each. Six others each floated
stock of a half million dollars or more. Wyoming, however, was
merely a representative area — the same thing was happening, or had
just happened, up and down the Great Plains from Montana to
Texas and across the Southwest to California. Even Colorado,
Utah, Nevada, and Idaho felt the surge of this tide. In a few short
years practically all ranges were under use and in many cases deple-
tion had commenced on a scale in keeping with the size of the herds.
Outfits owning 5,000 to 100,000 cattle were common on the Plains
and in the Southwest, and properties of small owners were often
consolidated by purchase or by incorporation. The world-famous
Santa Gertrudis Kanch of 500,000 acres near Brownsville, Tex.,
was built up by purchased additions to the original Spanish grant
of 12 secios of 4,428 acres each (118). The Swan Land & Cattle
Co. was started by combining three ranch properties, totaling about
30,000 acres and 100,000 cattle, with a half -million-acre range ex-
tending irregularly from Ogallala, Nebr., westward to Fort Steele,
Wyo., and from the Union Pacific Kailroad northward to the Platte
Kiver (98). The XIT outfit in the Texas Panhandle ran about 150,-
000 head on 3,000,000 acres of land— 25 miles east and west by 200
miles north and south. Hundreds of other ranches running some-
what fewer cattle, chiefly on public land, had occupied most of the
range by 1883 and all of it in the Plains Region by 1885 (19). The
cattle numbers by States, shown in table 26 for 1870, 1880, and
1886, indicate how rapidly the range forage was appropriated.
TABLE 26. — Cattle numbers'1 in the 17 western range States, for 1870, 1880, and
1886
[000 omitted]
State
1870
1880
1886
State
1870
1880
1886
North Dakota
2
70
189
Montana
117
622
1 050
South Dakota ..
40
136
439
Idaho
50
193
220
Nebraska
159
1,000
1,712
Utah
135
136
215
Kansas
571
1,247
2,434
Nevada
72
220
238
Oklahoma
150
552
580
California
1 001
916
1 258
Texas
4 600
4 932
8 587
Oregon
374
631
628
New Mexico . . .
158
545
1,065
Washington
106
207
269
30
142
502
Colorado
271
809
1,356
Total
7,907
12 881
21 699
Wyoming
71
623
857
» Tentative revisions of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics.
119
120 THE WESTERN RANGE
Because such immense numbers could not be run on the range
without cattle of different ownerships intermingling, the managers
mutually agreed to honor each other's "range rights." These
"rights", for the most part, had no legal status but were respected
for many years; and when smaller operators and settlers began to
push in, the large outfits often used extra-legal pressure to preserve
the monopoly they had enjoyed under these illicit "range rights."
Original outfits with only a few hundred cattle were accepted as
part of the country, but after 1883 whenever newcomers tried to
enter what the established residents regarded as fully occupied range
they were practically frozen out by the resident stockmen, who re-
fused to cooperate at round-ups and other group efforts (98) .
GENESIS OF THE BOOM
The buffalo, deer, elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and other forms
of wildlife, large and small, that were the first users of the range
had little or no discernible effect upon it in terms of depletion.
Heavy use by vast roaming or migrating herds of buffalo was com-
mon, and around strategic watering places, salt licks, and on favorite
breeding grounds range forage would be so fully grazed that little
or no feed remained. Yet in every instance seasonal migrations of
the herds permitted recovery of the vegetation between grazing
periods.
In all other instances of temporary exhaustion of the range re-
source, such as overuse by huge colonies of prairie dogs (88) , or utter
destruction of forage by locusts (172), or crickets (H), sufficient
periods of recuperation occurred to maintain the productive power
of the original range. No evidence remains to us from those times
of such persistent overuse as came when the white man began to
pasture his cattle year after year on the same range, without afford-
ing any opportunity for restoring plant vigor.
The Spanish brought to their settlements in Cuba, Florida, and
Mexico ancestors of the livestock destined to use much of these
ranges. Stock have grazed intermittently on the southern plains
since 1540 when Coronado there sought the Seven Cities of Cibola,
taking with him 1,000 horses, 500 cattle, and 5,000 sheep. The pe-
riod of continuous grazing began about 1700. At this time, Father
Kino, a Jesuit missionary, was very active in promoting livestock
raising among the missions in southern Arizona (70).
Missions established in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona between
1670 and 1690, became livestock centers soon after 1700. It seems
likely that from 40,000 to 50,000 sheep and 10,000 to 20,000 cattle
were brought to Texas during the mission period. The more settled
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona fostered sheep and ponies. The
latter proved well adapted to range grazing, became prized Indian
property, and multiplied so rapidly and were so widely distributed
that by 1805 Lewis and Clark found 700 Spanish ponies at one small
village of Shoshone Indians in northern Idaho (57) .
California missions, established between 1769 and 1800, so pros-
pered under the guidance of the padres that in 1834, when the 21
missions were taken from the church, they had 423,000 cattle, 61,600
horses, and 321,500 sheep, goats, and swine (58) . Range use must
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 121
have been of major consequence at San Luis Rey where 80,000 cattle,
10,000 horses, and 100,000 sheep, goats, and swine grazed.
Texas proved to be especially well suited for cattle. In 1821 the
Mexican Government contracted with Moses Austin to bring settlers
into Texas, and many came, enticed by liberal tracts of land ; and the
success of Austin's colonization scheme then brought a host of re-
quests for similar grants (100). In 1830 further American immi-
gration was prohibited, but already about 20,000 Americans were
there whose attention to cattle growing, together with the mild cli-
mate, so favored cattle that the stock multiplied to 100,000 in 1830 ;
to 330,000 in 1850; and to 3,533,000 in 1860 (7£0).
With the Civil War came the first large cattle shipments from
Texas to the Confederate Army. Despite the restraining influence
of the northern blockade, the consequent stagnation, and the fall of
prices to $3 or $4 a head, ideal range conditions favored still further
increase, and made Texas a hive of cattle ready to swarm forth at
the first opportunity. This came after the war, when currency in-
flation and rising prices in northern manufacturing centers, together
with a decrease of 7 percent in total cattle in the United States,
brought market offerings of $40 to $60 for beef steers (98) .
The railroads in Missouri, central Kansas, and Nebraska offered
outlets for these crowded Texas herds. In 1866, real drives to
Sedalia and Abilene began, and in 1867 when the demand and prices
were up, more than 1,000 cars left Abilene. Actual demands reached
such a volume in 1871 that 600,000 cattle were driven northward to
the railroad in that year. The heavy range use in western Kansas
and Nebraska that began with these drives never ceased until the
grass was plowed under, although dropping prices decreased the
profits and hence the number of drives. By 1885 a total of more
than 5 million cattle had been driven northward from Texas (98) .
In a few years, however, fences began to be built, settlement was
well under way, and railroads were extended into the arid region.
Advance of main and branch railroads into the range country
brought the market to nearby railheads. Drives were no longer
necessary and, as the use of barbed wire for fencing cattle away
from farms and towns became general, they were discontinued en-
tirely in 1885. Intense range use was encouraged by the railroads,
and by 1890 had been extended with their help to every nook and
corner of the region.
Meanwhile the Mormons filled the Utah ranges with foundation
stock which they themselves drove across the Plains, and with lean
cattle and horses obtained by trading with other emigrants. By
about 1880 the ranges in northern and central Utah were occupied
with 160,000 Shorthorns, Devons, and Herefords (11).
With the discovery of gold in the E-ocky Mountains during the
sixties, cattle were taken ±rom Utah and California into Colorado,
Montana, Idaho, and Nevada. The strong markets of the late
seventies and early eighties carried grazing onto most of the accessi-
ble ranges in the mountain region. Here, however, development
of the country was slower and more substantial, since it came in
connection with homes and farms. Wild hay and irrigated alfalfa
produced abundantly and from the first lent stability to range use
on a community basis.
122 THE WESTERN RANGE
The tremendous growth in range cattle, however, carried with it
a weakness that in the end proved fatal. It was based on a hus-
bandry transplanted from Mexico, which brought to English-speak-
ing people for the first time in history the practice of rearing cattle
in great droves without fences, corrals, or feed. The lariat, the
type of saddle, chaps, and the sombrero came along with the manner
of conducting the business. The very newness of it all as well as the
immensity of the outfits left the Americans without guide or stand-
ard by which to gage either the security of the cattle as they roamed
at large or the ability of the forages to stand up under continual
intense utilization. It is little wonder, therefore, that cattle instead
of grass came to be regarded as the raw resource and that the neg-
lected forages began to give way before the heavy and unmanaged
use to which they were subjected.
This almost explosive expansion of cattle grazing was based on
a great natural resource which the stockmen obtained with little
cost. Grass was the magnet and living bonanza that irresistibly
drew cattle and cattlemen to this range El Dorado.
Like the El Dorados of precious metals, the discovery of the grass
bonanza fired the imagination of cowboys, lawyers, farmers, mer-
chants, laborers, and bankers, who rushed in to seek their fortunes,
the poor by personal effort and the rich by investment. Both eastern
and Old World capital, the latter largely from England and Scot-
land, fevered through the expectation of profit of 25, 33, or 40 per-
cent. A large promotion literature flourished, including such widely
circulated books as Brisbin's Beef Bonanza. After presenting several
actual cases, Brisbin showed on paper how $25,000 would in 6 years
pay all expenses and leave a fortune of $51,278. Estimated For-
tunes and Millions in Beef are significant chapter headings (&/).
Since a boom was in progress, the stories were believed. Swan, of
the Swan Land & Cattle Co., promoted in Scotland the corporation
with the capitalization of $3,000,000 already mentioned, and later
increased this to $3,750,000 — and paid a few dividends from the
capital (98). Some companies really did make money for a while,
but lax methods accompanied this "easy" money. Cattle were bought
on "book" count, and newly purchased cattle were seldom counted.
Purchase prices soared^ because purchasers bid against each other,
and because of the buying of breeding stock whose offspring started
other breeding herds, most of which never went to a consumer market
but accumulated as capital inventory until the collapse of 1886.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE BOOM
The expectation of fortunes to be made in a few years led to
gambling in futures and caused overexpansion both in investments
and in range use. In this process the accumulated forage of several
years was mined, overuse taking not only the current growth but
sapping as well the vigor of the forage plants. The better stock-
men recognized the danger (98, 1S8), but warnings in a minor key
during a boom get no hearing, and exploitation raced on.
This constant drain, without allowing any chance for recupera-
tion, caused the forage "mine" to peter out. In 1898 Bentley (16)
reported that some stockmen considered that in parts of Texas "the
injury has gone almost past the point where redemption is pos-
HISTOKY OF EANGE USE 123
sible." Ranges that should have carried a cow on every 40 acres had
one on every 10 acres.
While this dangerous process of depleting the ranges by overuse
and by too early and too continuous grazing was going on, scarcely
anybody was making provision for supplementary feeding or for
setting aside winter ranges. Neglect of cattle diseases, too, made
the risks still higher. All business was conducted on the basis of
open winters, notwithstanding the fact that Shorthorns brought
from the farms of the East and Texas stock arriving in late season
did not go through the first winter safely. Investors, believing
implicitly in the security of their capital, did not realize they were
"betting against God Almighty and a sub-Arctic winter" (98).
Whole fortunes, either owned or borrowed, and speculative loans
of millions each were all staked on cattle. With no source of income
save cattle, the stakes were high and the risks breath-taking; but
since it was a boom, men were irrational. The waste, too, was ex-
hausting ; cowboys, fully employed only a few weeks at roundup and
branding, lived during the winters mostly at the expense of the
ranch owners.
And just at this point nature spun a "double blank" and collected
the stake. The winter of 1885-86 was severe from Kansas south-
ward to Texas and New Mexico. Osgood says 85 percent of the
cattle were killed in some areas. In the north the summer of 1886
was hot and dry, grass was short, and cattle were forced on the
market at reduced prices. In November an Arctic winter set in;
snow was deep; blizzard followed blizzard; the chinook was fol-
lowed at once with snow. Young stock fresh from the East and from
Texas died in great droves, with a mortality of 40 to 60 percent (40).
Ranges were so closely cropped that cattle losses would have been
heavy in a mild winter, but with severe cold and deep snow, the lack
of feed was economically fatal to many stockmen, especially to the
speculatively financed corporations. The somewhat inaccurately re-
corded numbers of assessed cattle in Montana decreased from 663,716
in 1886 to 471,171 in 1887; in Wyoming from nearly 900,000 in 1886
to just over 750,000 in 1887. Financial confidence, which started to
wane in 1885, was almost completely lost, and the winter of 1886-87
gave a body blow to the beef bonanza. When the depression caused
loans to be called, credit liquidation brought forced sales and
bankruptcy.
Starvation of cattle followed severe droughts in the Southwest
in 1886 (75) ? in Colorado in 1888-90, in the Plains and Southwest
in 1893-94; in the Coast States in 1898-99, and from Montana to
Arizona and New Mexico in 1901-4.
RECOVERY — STRIVING FOR SECURITY ON THE CATTLE RANGE
So weak had the boom structure been and so severe the shock of
its fall that only a wreck of the range-cattle industry remained.
Range use had been so concentrated and relentless that the best
coulees were hopelessly trampled, and the back slopes weakened in
productive power. Herds were broken and scattered; confidence
was wiped out; and forced sales for liquidation of debts pressed
down the already broken prices. Cattle which were worth $9.35
124 THE WESTERN RANGE
per hundredweight in 1882 at Chicago brought $1 in 1887 (19).
Naturally, the outfits supported by foreign capital, without the
personal care of a vitally interested owner, suffered most ; the "cattle
barons and bovine kings faded out of public interest." On the other
hand, those to whom cattle raising had been more than a wild
adventure for big stakes fared best.
While the range was used recklessly by most ranchers, the neces-
sity for providing a dependable forage supply was felt, even before
the ruinous winter of 1886-87, by a few stockmen who had pur-
chased land in an effort to prevent summer use of range suitable
for winter grazing (98). Others, realizing that controlled ranges
had advantages, were willing to relinquish their "rights" and per-
suaded the national convention of Cattle Growers to recommend
Federal leases on the public range (33). Before the boom, in 1881,
stockmen of both Montana and Wyoming fought against enacting
the law suggested by Powell for enlarged "arid homesteads", and
urged that all proposals to lease land be rejected ; but after the boom
they felt Differently about the situation (107, 176).
No action on this recommendation was taken by the Federal Gov-
ernment and the cattlemen then attempted to acquire ownership of
as much land as possible. Cowboys were hired to enter land and
for a small sum turn it over to their employer. Lands along streams
where cattle could water and where wild hay could be grown were
acquired first, and later more and more upland range (98) .
Windmills, which came to be widely used for pumping water to
range at a distance from streams, added another expense, but it was
evident that adequate forage must be assured. Cattle yards and
loading and sorting chutes were erected. Also ownership of land
was accompanied by higher grades of livestock; purebred bulls
(Shorthorns at first, but after 1887 Herefords, which had proved
more hardy and also earlier in maturing) were introduced (118).
This use of better stock was in turn accompanied by the use of
shelters; death by starvation or by exposure of a Texas cow worth
a few dollars had not been serious, but that of a $200 or a $300 bull
was avoided by providing shelter and feed, and thus the combina-
tion of hard winter and market collapse changed the range-cattle
industry from an adventure into a business.
From this point on, the history of the range is largely the story
of the struggle between the big owner and the little owner, with
the cattle "rustler" as an unrecognized but inevitable ally of the
small owner. The Wyoming Stock Growers' Association was strong
enough to blacklist cow hands who had herds of their own, and even
certain of its own members, but a rustler on trial often had an
accomplice or several sympathizers on the jury. Since convictions
were impossible in these cases and the association was strong, a lariat
on a cotton wood brought swift justice. Although the association
unduly prolonged its "vigilante" efforts after legal justice was pro-
vided, it cannot be denied that it did much to put down cattle
rustling, and kindred practices.
The land homesteaded by cowboys to add to the big ranch was in
many cases so located along the streams as to prevent another stock-
man's cattle from drinking. Larger outfits sometimes in this way
covered all the water courses in the vicinity and by entering a few
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 125
quarter sections they obtained control of many thousands, some-
times hundreds of thousands, of acres of Federal land (180). Agree-
ments among the big stockmen not to cooperate with newcomers in
round-ups and other group activities, in a concerted effort to squeeze
them out, aroused resentment.
Affairs gradually assumed a state of social warfare, culminating
in 1892 in the "Johnson County war", when the association under-
took to punish the residents of Buffalo, Wyo., for "harboring and
abetting suspected rustlers." Several men were killed; the Army
Eeserves were called out; and arrests of well-known cattlemen fol-
lowed. Although the matter was hushed up, the big stockman's
range monopoly was effectively broken; law and justice were here-
after applied with some show of impartiality to operators of small
and large outfits (98).
After this, contention decreased and progress in peaceful settlement
made headway. The industry was not, however, to ride an even keel,
for cattle values which had reached another crest in 1898 tumbled so
rapidly that in 1905 they were only a little over half the 1898 figure.
After this there was a slow recovery until the European war again
brought high meat demands and soaring prices.
INCREASE IN SHEEP ACCENTUATED BITTER STRUGGLE FOR RANGE
Just when security in the ownership of cattle was becoming estab-
lished and the West was being taught the necessity of welding land
to livestock to insure dependable forage supplies and range use, a
tremendous and rapid increase in sheep again stirred up the struggle
for range.
Sheep numbers quickly rose from a comparatively small figure to
veritable hordes. This increase came at different times in different
States, but maximum numbers were reached in most States between
1880 and 1910. In California the gold boom brought an increase
from about 1 million in 1859 to 4.1 million sheep in 1870 and 6.9 million
in 1880. New Mexico sheep reached their peak number in 1882 with
5.2 million and Texas an early peak in 1884 with 5.7 million. From a
few hundred thousand in the early eighties the sheep in Utah in-
creased to nearly 2.9 million in 1901, in Idaho to about 2.6 million in
1903, in Montana to 5.7 million in 1903, and in Wyoming to 6 million
in 1909.
Vast numbers of sheep appearing almost without warning on fully
used cattle ranges not only aroused a deep resentment but had a dire
effect in causing even further exhaustion of the range forage. Com-
pact herds left the range plants shaved to the ground and the soil
exposed to wind and water erosion (185). Also sheep were crowded
right up to ranches and settlements, and since cattle fences did not
keep out sheep, sometimes even hay fields were invaded. Even more
destructive of range than the ordinary wool herds were the bands of
wethers, which could outdistance ewe herds in the race for feed.
Cattlemen resorted to force in many localities, sometimes scatter-
ing bands of sheep, sometimes driving them over precipices, and in
some places setting up dead lines that sheepmen were warned not
to cross. But herders and owners of sheep were robust frontiersmen,
and sometimes when a particularly aggressive herder was threatened
126 THE WESTERN RANGE
firearms were used, and the cattle-sheep feuds waxed hot. Through-
out the West there were many such feuds, some of which resulted in
as many as 30 deaths (1%) , and only after both cattlemen and sheep-
men were convinced by the community that violence brought retribu-
tion to both contestants did the feuds cease.
The outcome of such a relentless contest for range was complete
utilization of forage; the only way to prevent another outfit from
obtaining a given range was to strip it utterly naked. To make con-
ditions still worse, this plant spoilage struck at the very foundation
of the range resource by furthering the loss of the most productive
soil — the friable, humus-bearing surface layer.
After 15 or 20 years of such exhausting range use the better forage
plants succumbed on great blocks of range ; in other areas their vigor
was so reduced that growth was dwarfed and belated until there was
little top growth and no seed crop (115).
Depleted and restricted ranges, with the resulting increased expenses,
skimmed off most of the profit (133). Wool prices dropped during
the early nineties and again just after 1910 (36). Sheep, therefore,
declined during the nineties in California and Texas, during 1901-5
in Utah, and during 1910-20 in some of the other States, but in 1920-29
there was a rather large increase in several of the Mountain States.
The decreased value of wool and the rising demand for lambs
brought about a marked reduction in wethers and consequently elimi-
nated the worst form of range use. After 1915 herds consisted largely
of ewe-breeding stock ; when 3 or 4 months old all the wether lambs
and half the ewe lambs were sold (133).
The market-lamb industry, with its heavy investment in good breed-
ing herds, and the range-use difficulties forced the sheepmen to seek
sure feed. Shortly after 1900 national-forest permits began to assist
greatly ; some private land was leased and some was purchased (133) .
The sheep industry then took on two distinct aspects: (1) Market
lambs as a major product, supported by heavy investments in land
and facilities; and (2) wool and range lambs combined, with a small
investment. Though use of range on the national forests hastened
the combining of the land with sheep, this was a phase of the evolu-
tion of the industry and would have come about in any case.
Two results thus arose from the use of owned land: (1) Transient,
nomadic outfits decreased in number ; (2) range use was in part lim-
ited to the grazing of a definite area, supplemented by feed from
cultivated land.
In Texas, in the Southwestern States, and in Oregon the problems
of sheep grazing were further complicated by the increase in Angora
goats. The first importation came from Turkey in 1849, and another
in 1860 (109). Increase was at first slow, but about 1910 it took on
real proportions. Texas had 248,000 goats in 1898, 1.7 million in
1909, 2.2 million in 1922, and more than 3.2 million in 1930 (1).
On Edwards Plateau in Texas, the area of greatest concentration,
cattle and sheep were grazed in fenced range pastures before goats
came in. At first it was thought that goats might benefit a range by
holding brush in check, but in time the better forages decreased and
the poisonous bitter rubberweed increased.
Goats are run in smaller numbers in New Mexico, Arizona, Cali-
fornia, Utah, and Oregon, where they graze on rough, brushy areas;
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 127
but when herded closely, often by alien owners, they have in many
cases stripped the range of nearly all vegetation. Such forage deple-
tion does not occur, however, when the goats are handled in open
herds on properly stocked ranges.
The increase in sheep and goats was in part compensated for by
a decrease in horses. Indians and settlers had numerous ponies,
which, along with the bands of wild ponies, constituted a major
range use until about 1908, when stockmen and settlers began round-
ing them up and shipping them out (60). Shooting wild ponies also
was a regular practice on some ranges. The reduction of farm horses
by motorization has decreased range use by horses still more. How-
ever, the gain by the decrease of horses was not nearly equal to the
increased demand by sheep and goats.
SETTLEMENT INTENSIFIES TENDENCY TO RANGE DEPLETION
Settlement, which sometimes preceded and sometimes followed the
influx of sheep into a locality, markedly intensified the severity of
range use. Encouraged by land booms, by high prices for cereals,
by railroads, and by a few favorable seasons, crop-growing was
pushed far beyond the line safe for tillage (94). Believing that
cultivation brought increased rainfall and encouraged by a few years
with more than average rain, the settlers turned good short-grass
range wrong side up and ruined it for grazing.
Crop growing became successful on part of this land, but the
venture often failed in the long run unless irrigation was practiced.
A few inches below the surface of most soils was a hardpan largely
impervious to plant roots, and the soil above was not deep enough
to hold much moisture (178). Nevertheless, these precarious lands
were oversettled, only to be abandoned in a few years. In western
Kansas there was a succession of such waves of settlement a genera-
tion apart.
The most productive range lands were ripped up for wheat or
corn, thereby decreasing both the acreage and the acre-yield of
forage. Between 1880 and 1899, 104 million acres were taken for
crop growing, largely on the Plains. Settlement served both as means
of reducing range and also as a means of producing hay and cereals
which tended to furnish a more stable feed supply. As the range
area decreased, range use by resident stockmen was concentrated on
the unplowed area with resulting overutilization, a condition accentu-
ated by the settlers' farm stock.
In the mountain region settlement took place almost entirely on
"spring-fall" range, already the least adequate of the three seasonal
ranges. Livestock were crowded upward into the lower edge of
summer range on the one hand and out to the winter ranges on the
other (133). Use of the summer range at the wrong season did great
injury by exposing the best forages to too early grazing, and the
winter range, with only a sparse plant cover, suffered from being
grazed in the fall and spring periods of recuperation.
Not all settlement influences, however, were harmful to the range.
Irrigation to increase forage production is the natural complement
of grazing in an arid region. Alfalfa growing began in the fifties
in California, whence it spread eastward to Utah before 1860 and
128 THE WESTERN BANGE
from there to Colorado about 1185 and to Montana about 1890. By
1909 more than 6,000,000 tons of alfalfa hay were produced in the
range States, much of which was used to supplement range forage.
Only 1 to 2 percent of the land area was growing alfalfa, but the
yields were 5 to 10 times as great as those from native forages.
Moreover, alfalfa hay was unusually rich in proteins and minerals,
and thus made an unexcelled feed supplement for grazing stock
(136). Stubble fields and irrigated pastures made the handling of
livestock more convenient and strengthened the animals by furnish-
ing a variety and abundance of feed for a few days or weeks as the
animals moved from one seasonal range to another. Stockmen could
depend on a definite food reserve to tide their animals over emer-
gency periods of food shortage such as are occasioned by severe
winters or by prolonged drought.
The practice of feeding hay and grain to livestock increased
rapidly in the Plains States after the severe winter of 1886-87, and in
the Southwest after the drought of 1891-94. The total supplemental
feeds, including irrigated pasturage, furnished to livestock increased
in the range part of the Plains States from 5 percent of total forage
eaten in 1890 to 17 percent in 1910 ; in the 11 far-western range States
such feeds increased from 12 percent in 1890 to 40 percent in 1910.
In 1935 these feeds constituted 29 percent of the total forage in the
Plains States and 43 percent in the 11 Western States. Such rapid
increase in the practice of feeding grew out of heavy winter and
drought losses which resulted in part from the depleted ranges and
in part from the absence of any provision for suitable reserve range
for use in winter or during dry periods. Breeding and other animal
husbandry practices brought great incentives for feeding the more
valuable animals. The small area of many ranches also tended to
favor feeding as opposed to grazing.
As a result of the limited areas of land that could be taken by
homesteading, varying from 160 to 640 acres, most settlers who be-
came stockmen obtained holdings much too small and frequently too
nearly submarginal for family support. The more fortunate ones
were able to purchase more land, but the great majority struggled
along with one homestead and whatever public range they could
salvage, which early became very limited and consequently seriously
overgrazed. This vast number of too-small holdings was concen-
trated near larger irrigation projects, where the high cost of irriga-
tion water and of preparing the land for irrigation frequently limited
the size of such farms to 20 to 80 acres, too small an acreage to permit
much farm pasturage.
One of the worst phases of the settlement of the better range land
by small ranchers and farmers was the bitter struggle over land use
which it engendered. Corporate livestock outfits sometimes obtained
legitimate ownership control of streams and springs, but more often,
as we have seen, they depended on intimidating the settler who came
with just enough capital to make a humble beginning. Soon the set-
tlers entered land along the streams inside illegal enclosures. The
cropper fenced his grain field and garden, turned his animals out to
graze, dug a canal, and put in a diversion dam. One day his cattle
disappeared, his fences were cut, the canal broken, or the dam demol-
ished. Suspecting the stockmen, he retaliated by killing or driving
away cattle or by cutting the drift fence.
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 129
When sneep outfits crowded in upon the isolated settlers or upon
a small irrigated community, the sheep seldom left much forage for
domestic farm stock, making it necessary to feed teams and milk
cows the entire year or else provide irrigated pasturage. This the
settlers considered decidedly unfair (94) • This three-cornered fight
among cattlemen, settlers, and sheepmen was a complex pattern of
bitter feelings, especially when a huge incorporated stock outfit was
involved. Worst of all, it put a premium on forestalling another
outfit, and stripping a neighborhood nearly bare of forage in order
to keep out a competing user.
This competition led to increased operating expenses and to in-
vestment expenditures the purpose of which reached beyond forage
management. Heavy investments in land, buildings, fences, water
developments, and miscellaneous supplies were made to provide
shelter, feed reserves, pasturage, and better grades of livestock.
However, little or nothing was spent for management of ranges, a
phase in urgent need of improvement.
The serious effects of poor range management were increased in
many sections by fires, particularly in California, where forest and
brush fires have played an important part in molding and shaping
the vegetation. Historic evidence and the reconstructed story
through fire-scarred tissue on century-old trees indicate that fires
frequently swept forest and foothills alike. But the damage caused
by these presettlement fires was less serious because nature in her
own way slowly started anew the process of rehabilitation and build-
ing back to climax vegetation. Once civilized men entered into the
picture, fires increased in number and restoration was indefinitely
retarded. The miner, the early sheepman, and the careless traveler
all contributed annually to the inevitable smoky skies and burned
forests (128, IJfi). The net result was the extension of vast areas
of chaparral, chamiso, and other brush areas of lowest forage
values, replacing on the upper elevation coniferous forests and on
the lower levels the more open parklike woodland and savanna types.
In this process grass and herbs were replaced by undesirable woody
shrubs, which in repeated fires of the timber type produced forage
for a short period, followed in a few years by impenetrable thickets
of manzanita and ceanothus. On areas where fires were used freely
and where overgrazing followed, perennial grasses frequently were
replaced by a host of "immigrant" annuals from the Mediterranean
region of much lower forage value.
ESTABLISHMENT or PUBLIC-LAND CONTROL A STABILIZING FACTOR
The creation of the national forests, on which are grazed 12
percent of all the cattle and 23 percent of all the sheep in the West,
greatly stabilized range use and livestock production. An effort was
made to administer grazing on the national forests for the benefit
both of the permanent stockmen and of the adjacent agricultural
communities. Having a definite range allotment with 3 to 5 months
of dependable summer feed of high quality helped the stockmen to
make the adjustments necessary to supply feed for the remainder of
the year.
64946—36 10
130 THE WESTERN RANGE
Prior to 1930 some organized attention was given to the principles
of range management on northern Indian lands. In 1930 responsi-
bility for the supervision of all grazing was delegated to the forestry
branch of the Indian Service, and a distinct forward step was taken
by inaugurating a plan of management similar to that developed on
the national forests.
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 provided authority to administer
80 million acres, or about half the public domain, and made possible
a step toward the management of the grazing on these lands.
Recently wildlife and game management have come to the front
in the national forests as problems to be correlated with grazing.
Recreation, both on national forests and on national parks, has also
increased greatly in importance since automobiles came into general
use. The parks, as reservoirs for wildlife, have become much better
known than formerly. Under the previous near absence of control,
game and other wildlife in the country as a whole decreased to small
populations, whereas under the unplanned protection used in the
West from about 1915 until recently game became so congested in
some areas as to require serious attention. It is likely that use of
the range by game will increase in many places, but under good man-
agement it need not conflict in an important way with livestock
grazing.
Both game and recreation have such high public values that they
will undoubtedly receive preference in the use of small areas of
range land especially suited for these purposes.
WORLD WAR BOOM AND POST- WAR DEPRESSION BRING HEAVY
DEMANDS ON RANGE
The participation of the United States in the World War again
intensified range use by bringing about a great increase in numbers
of livestock, stimulated by rising prices and by war demands for
increased food production (66). In 1918-19, the number of animal
units in the Nation was the highest ever attained (18) , and by 1920 a
great potential meat surplus had been built up. This important in-
crease in numbers of livestock had the effect of speeding up
depletion.
The additional stocking, together with dry seasons, proved a heavy
blow to the program of range management on national forests. The
national-forest administration responded to these urgent national de-
mands and in 1918 allowed 1,063,000 extra animals to graze on the
forests, receiving them earlier in spring and keeping them later in
the fall (60). Justification for it lay in the fact that, although the
ranges were being depleted, it was difficult to supply the meat de-
mands of the war period. In addition there was the desire of stock-
men to benefit by the high war prices. In places the damage done
to the national-forest ranges has not as yet been fully repaired.
Also between 1910 and 1929, but mostly after 1915, some 50 mil-
lion acres of range land, largely on the Great Plains, was plowed up
for dry farming by a horde of new farmers. Later many of these
farms were abandoned.
During the World War and in the post-war inflation period, as in
the boom of 1883, the easy credit available led to overborrowing.
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 131
Owners were making so much paper profit that overinvestment in
livestock, land, and improvements resulted. From March 1920,
scoured wool dropped from $2.05 a pound to 26 cents in August 1921,
and as a result sheepmen lost heavily by liquidation and foreclosure
(133). Wool and sheep prices recovered markedly during 1922 and
1923, but cattle prices on the Chicago market dropped from more
than $21 a hundredweight in 1919 to just more than $9 in 1921 and
1926, entailing a long period of deflation in cattle values and heavy
losses during liquidation of assets. Afterward, along with other in-
dustries, all livestock prices rose sharply to the 1929 crest.
In 1930, the mortgage debt was 35 percent of the total value of
outfits, and this percentage mounted rapidly during the depression,
owing to shrinkage in land and other values (7). As in other in-
dustries mortgages were often larger than the current value of prop-
erty. "Paper" on livestock was also extremely prevalent, practically
all outfits being heavily mortgaged in order to buy feeds during the
drought. Inability to pay brought an increase in delinquencies and
foreclosures. In 1932 the eleventh district of the Federal Land Bank
alone had taken over 706 farms, valued at more than $3,500,000, de-
spite the fact that banks were trying to avoid foreclosure on farms
and ranches.
The break in livestock prices prevented disposal of livestock at a
price that even approached production costs. With lambs and ewes
bringing only a dollar a head in many range localities, and with no
market at all in many others, sheep numbers greatly increased. A
similar condition prevailed in the cattle industry. In spite of the
increased numbers of livestock on the range, much less supplemental
feed was purchased than in ordinary times, and forage yields reduced
by drought were woefully inadequate to the demand for range feed.
DROUGHT ADDED TO EXCESS STOCKING WORKS HAVOC ON RANGE
The drought of 1930-35, culminating a 10- to 15-year dry period,
has given another tremendous setback to range forage production,
already reduced as a result of previous long, severe, and nearly
unrestricted use. The heavy load imposed by World War increases
in range livestock had barely begun to lighten, when the slump in
livestock prices and the drought combined to increase use and reuuce
forage production (66).
Throughout the whole history of range use the forage has been
heavily used and at intervals severely so. The livestock industry
at times has been badly shaken. Always, however, the industry has
been able to go on, in part because of the remarkable ability of the
range to recover at least a part of the values lost.
In spite of heavy use over a period of many years, the range has
not been destroyed, although it has been greatly weakened. With
normal precipitation, growth was increased and the splendid sod
grasses at least partly refilled the bare spots. Where the grasses
were killed, the ground was occupied by other plants which, though
of lesser palatability and smaller forage value, the animals still ate.
The recuperative powers of the better ranges are so high that their
capacity to support livestock has on the whole decreased slowly.
132 THE WESTERN RANGE
The livestock industry also has shown a great power of resilience.
After each shock of depletion, drought, or depression, new feed sup-
plies have been found, at first by seeking new ranges, but later by
growing hay and other forages and by supplementing range forage
with grain, cottonseed meal, and other concentrates. Improved
breeding of livestock and other adjusted production practices also
helped to offset the increased feeding and other management costs.
In spite of range depletion, the livestock industry has managed to
survive, though usually loaded with increasing expenses.
ISSUES GROWING OUT OF RANGE-USE HISTORY
The history of range occupancy and settlement as summarized in
the previous pages indicates five issues that require earnest con-
sideration.
DROUGHTS
History records disastrous droughts in 1886 in the Southwest;
in 1888-90 in Colorado; in 1893-94 in the Plains and Southwest;
in 1898-99 on the Pacific Coast ; in 1903-4 from Montana to Arizona ;
in 1917-18 in the Southwest ; in 1923-24 in the Southwest and Idaho ;
and in 1930^-35 practically all over the range country. Although
this record is not complete, it shows that intermittent drought is an
inseparable problem of the range country. Since it can be neither
avoided nor prevented it must be foreseen, perhaps predicted, and
at all events provided for. Although determining the most feasible
economic method of doing these things is no small undertaking, it is
one that must be attempted.
DEPLETION
As already seen, depletion of the range forage began to be of
major consequence during the boom of the eighties. Between 1890
and 1910 sheep and cattle exhausted the vigor of forage by repeated
close cropping, and oversettlement trimmed away great blocks of
the best range. While the conflict between large and small operators,
between cattlemen and sheepmen, and between settlers and stockmen
for possession of the range intensified its use in no small degree,
depletion, literally everywhere present, weakened the position of the
livestock industry. On top of this came the immense increase in
animals in the war years and the debilitating effect of protracted
drought, bringing stockmen to the verge of despair. History indi-
cates that the current of depletion, which still runs strong, will con-
tinue to do so as long as present conditions are allowed to exist.
With large areas 50 percent and some others 75 percent depleted,
it is not too much to predict that the range will become almost
destitute of forage unless a determined, unrelenting effort at restora-
tion is begun at once.
NEED FOR BASIC TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
The history of range use is in part a story of failure to conserve
forage supplies ; to restore depleted ranges ; to plan land use ; to pre-
HISTORY OF RANGE USE 133
pare for drought; and to avert the effects of depression. There is
an obvious need for gathering and applying new knowledge on
which to base an effort to solve these problems.
TOO-SMALL RANCH UNITS
History has also disclosed the part that subdivision of land in
ill-advised efforts to encourage settlement of unsuitable or too lim-
ited farm and range units has played in range depletion. These
past errors in land use are not repaired by mere abandonment of
farms. Further, they are thwarting efforts at progress in land plan-
ning and now rise up to plague us as problems in submarginal lands
and in the resettlement of population. Some means must be sought
of repairing past errors and of avoiding those likely to arise in the
future.
CYCLES OF BOOM AND DEPRESSION
Stockmen have repeatedly been at the mercy of drastic price fluc-
tuations. Breeding herds bought at high prices during a boom
have led to a surplus of cattle and sheep which has accentuated the
price decline after the peak (177), sometimes lowering it to a third
of the boom value. At five different periods, the forced sale of cat-
tJe on a shrinking market made prices per head out of all propor-
tion to costs built up largely in a period of high prices, causing debts
incurred during the up-phase of the price cycle to be a double or a
triple burden. The Farm Credit Administration has worked on a
solution of the credit phase of this recurring difficulty.
Each of these unfavorable consequences of range use is presented
in detail in this chapter.
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
By R. S. CAMPBELL, Senior Forest Ecologist, Division of Range Research
The hardships of the great 1934 drought were too severe to leave
any doubt that extreme climatic fluctuations contribute greatly to
range depletion. Forage production on ranges was so scant in 1934
that wholesale removal of livestock was necessary in parts or all of
nearly every Western State. Where the drought prevailed, range
vegetation simply failed to produce sufficient feed to support the
numbers of livestock being grazed. Tall grasses in Nebraska (179),
grama grasses in Montana and New Mexico, and bunchgrasses in
California, in the drought areas, either failed to grow or dried up
early in the season.
The 1934 drought emphasized the dependence of range vegetation
and its forage production upon climate, especially rainfall. It also
forcibly demonstrated the natural fluctuating balance between cli-
mate and vegetation, in which range plants increase in abundance
and productivity during favorable years, and decline and lose vigor
in dry years. Both wet and dry years, singly or in groups, have been
occurring ever since man has observed the weather, and vegetation
responds to them — a factor beyond man's control. But more than
anything else the 1934 drought emphasized the failure of range live-
stock owners to recognize the extreme fluctuations of forage with the
climate, and to manage their ranges in such a manner as to meet
these vicissitudes. The worst depletion that occurred in 1934, and
during nearly every previous drought, was on overgrazed ranges.
So many livestock grazed the scant forage during and after the
drought that little or no vigor remained in the vegetation to start
a process of restoration that may require decades, especially where
wind and water erosion have since removed the unprotected fertile
topsoil. This is in marked contrast to the recovery of forage on
conservatively grazed ranges.
What happened in 1934 has happened before, and the cumulative
effect is no less than widespread depletion of the range resource
already outlined — devastating in its immediate effects and far-
reaching in its consequences. Each time, climate has played an in-
tegral part in the depletion. It is obvious that a sound program of
management to restore and maintain the range must include an
evaluation of (1) climate and its fluctuations and (2) the influence
of such fluctuations upon range vegetation and use.
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS ON WESTERN RANGES
The generally sparse vegetation on western ranges really is re-
markably abundant when one considers that the West receives
roughly about one-third as much rainfall as the eastern half of the
United States (fig. 43). A line drawn through Amarillo, Tex., and
North Platte, Nebr., both of which receive about 20 inches of rain-
135
136
THE WESTEKN RANGE
fall annually, would separate the country into two broad precipita-
tion zones (fig. 44). East of the line, the precipitation is over 20
inches and varies from about 35 inches in the Corn Belt from Iowa
to Ohio to about 50 inches in the Cotton Belt of the South (81).
West of the! line, the rainfall is less than 20 inches except in the
mountains. Over most of the range area between Kansas and Cali-
fornia it is under 15 inches. The great semidesert region extending
from southwestern Arizona to southeastern Oregon receives less than
10 inches. Precipitation in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains
averages more than 20 inches, and more than 60 inches in the Cascade
Range of Oregon and Washington.
\
NORTHERN
WESTERN
PLAINS (N/
RANGES
liles City, M
sr, Oreg.)
senix, Ariz.)
STATES
iy, N.Y.)
ont.)
''^^^^/^^
NORTHWESTERN (Bak
//////////S////////A
SOUTHWEJ
iTERN (Phc
1ASTERN
FERN (Alba
y//////////A
\
NORTHEAS
V/////////////////^^^
'//////A
\
CENTRAL (Springfield, III.)
Y////////////////^^^
'/////////A
SOUTHERN (Montgomery, Ala.)
W///////////////^
y//////////////,
////////////////A
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
ANNUAL PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
FIGURE 43. — Western ranges are characterized by low average rainfall, as shown by this
comparison of precipitation of typical western stations with those in the East.
Temperatures over western ranges as a whole are no higher than
in the East (82). However, the combination of low precipitation,
high day temperatures, low relative humidity, high evaporation,
high winds, and high proportion of sunshine on the western plains
and semidesert lands cause plants to use the available water more
quickly.
Also, the higher temperatures in the southern half of the range
country make conditions for plant growth much more difficult there
than in the northern portions of similar rainfall zones.
SEASONAL FLUCTUATIONS
Rainstorms a mile or more wide often move across the range for a
few miles, giving one particular area a rain of perhaps a half inch
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
137
or more. A short distance away from the storm path, the soil
remains dry and the vegetation is left without water. More fre-
quently, the rain on most of the favored strip is less than 0.25 inch,
and evaporates so rapidly after the storm that plants receive only a
very temporary benefit. By the time such localized showers have
5-10 INCHES
-.10-15 INCHES
/r/31-15-20 INCHES
| [..MORE THAN 20 INCHES
FIGURE 44. — There are several main precipitation zones within the western range terri-
tory. The desert and semidesert of the southwestern and intermountain regions are
especially dry.
occurred intermittently during the summer, the range has received
a greatly varying total rainfall of correspondingly uncertain ben-
efit to the forage. On the Jornada Experimental Range, an area 20
miles square in southern New Mexico, where the average summer
rainfall is 4.78 inches, Forest Service records show that actual rain-
fall during the summer of 1930 at different locations varied from 2.50
138 THE WESTERN RANGE
to 6.60 inches. Such differences, which occur even in favorable
years, necessarily cause forage growth to be spotty. For example,
the estimated forage crop in 1930 on the Jornada range was 100 per-
cent where the rainfall was average or better but only 50 percent
where rainfall was at the lowest point. Because the Jornada range
was conservatively grazed, the stand of forage was maintained in
that year even on the areas of lowest productivity; but on similar
areas of low rainfall on overgrazed ranges, depletion as high as 15
percent was observed in that one year.
Seasons vary greatly between regions within the range area. The
season of greatest precipitation in the Great Plains is spring and
summer; but in most of California it is winter, with every season
of the year bringing rain to some part of the range (81 ) , The pre-
cipitation also varies in character. In the Southwest nearly all of
the moisture comes as rain, while on the higher and more northerly
ranges, much of it is snow. Average annual snowfall at Phoenix,
Ariz., is only a trace, but at Boise, Idaho, it is 25 inches, and at Yel-
lowstone Park, Wyo., 97 inches (156) .
Temperature is important in determining the actual period of
forage production, because growing plants require warm weather in
addition to available moisture. Thus, the plant in Idaho under sev-
eral feet of snow is just as dormant as the plant in Arizona during
continued warm, dry weather.
The seasonal differences in climate between regions, and between
years within each region cause corresponding differences in the start
of plant growth and in the volume of range forage produced. Ran^e
use that allows livestock to graze the forage before it is sufficiently
developed, or that otherwise disregards these seasonal differences
contributes greatly to range deterioration. For example, the time
when bluebunch wheatgrass, an important forage species, started
growth in southeastern Idaho varied from March 20 to April 24 dur-
ing a 9-year period. A loss of 49 percent of the forage value was
caused in one experimental pasture where the vegetation was grazed
too early every year for the 9 years.
DROUGHT YEARS
The severity of drought on western ranges can be more fully
appreciated by comparison with the eastern farm belt. The lowest
annual rainfall for the State of Ohio was 26.56 inches in 1934, while
the average annual is 37.75 inches; but in Utah the lowest rainfall
recorded was 8.38 inches in 1900, while the average is 12.87 inches
(156). The worst drought ever recorded in the Corn Belt or the
Cotton Belt appears to be an abundance of rainfall when contrasted
with the average on western ranges (fig. 45). The lowest annual
rainfall at any stations throughout the West and East make an even
more striking contrast. For example, the lowest rainfall ever re-
corded at Des Moines, Iowa, was 18.24 inches in 1910, or 57 percent
of average; but at Miles City, Mont., rainfall during the 1934 drought
was only 5.51 inches, or 40 percent of average.
Drought is both severe and frequent on the western range. Using
75 percent of the average annual precipitation as an arbitrary cri-
terion of drought for the range country, more than 3 years out of
CLIMATIC FLUCTITATIONS
139
every 10 are drought years over great areas, according to calcula-
tions which include only 1933 and thus exclude the severe 1934
drought (fig. 46). The Mohave-Gila Desert has drought 4 years out
of 10j or nearly every other year, which alone labels it as the most
unreliable country for grazing in the West. The semidesert ranges
of the Southwest and Intermountain regions are only slightly less
hazardous. Certain portions of the Great Plains have drought 3
years in 10, a hazardous situation even for range use, but much more
risky for cultivated crops not as well adapted as the native vegeta-
tion to such vicissitudes.
THE MENACE IN A RECURRENCE OF DRY YEARS
The year 1934 was so severe that it focused the attention of the
entire Nation upon the disastrous consequences of drought. But few
YEAR 1900
WEST (UTAH)
p&xxxxx>&&&4
AVERAGE
YEAR 1934
52 -YEAR
AVERAGE
<
1
EAST (OHIO)
:88&^5$W$&^
5&2&^&^
1
) 10 20 30 40
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
FIGURE 45. — The worst drought ever recorded in the East seems abundant moisture when
compared with even the average rainfall in the West, as shown by two representative
States.
people realize that for most of the afflicted range area, 1934 was in
reality only the culmination of a series of years, mostly below normal
(17). Kainfall records in the West show whole groups of years be-
low average, with an occasional year of unusually low rainfall and
other occasional years of high rainfall. For example, Miles City,
Mont., had a long series of years with below-average rainfall from
1880 to 1905, and again from 1917 to 1934 (fig. 47).
There is hardly a year when it is not dry somewhere in the coun-
try, but the outstanding recent periods when dry years have oc-
curred in one or more western regions include 1888 to 1890, 1892 to
1894, 1898 to 1904, 1910, 1917, 1919, 1924, and 1928 to 1934, inclusive.
According to the statements of early settlers and actual records in
recent years, most of these dry years contributed to the decline of the
140
THE WESTERN RANGE
range, and this decline was undoubtedly accentuated by overstock-
ing which did not take into account sufficiently the effect of drought
on the vegetation.
The periodic recurrence of wet and dry years suggested by avail-
able precipitation records is confirmed by the tree-ring studies of
Douglass (43) . Since trees ordinarily add a new ring of wood each
NUMBER OF DROUGHT YEARS OUT OF EACH 10 YEARS
[ | DENSE UNGRA2ED FOREST Y/////A 2 TO 3 YEARS
FIGUBB 46.— DROUGHT FREQUENCY ON THE WESTERN RANGE.
The southwest and intermountain desert and semidesert ranges suffer drought (precipita-
tion 75 percent of average or less) more frequently than other regions. (Based on 35-
year averages 1899-1933, inclusive; calculations supervised by U. S. Weather Bureau.)
year, and the width of each ring corresponds to the precipitation
available that year, with an accuracy of 70 to 85 percent, the tree-
ring record gives good indication of the climate. In the case of the
sequoias of California, the data extend as far back as 1310 B. C. and
indicate cycles of 11 years. Dry years as shown by poor growth of
ponderosa pines in the area of Flagstaff, Ariz., occurred in 14r- and
21-year cycles, with major droughts about every 150 years, and minor
droughts at 40- or 50-year intervals.
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
141
Periods of poor growth in ponderosa pine forests in the Pacific
Northwest were found to vary from 3 to 14 years between 1630 and
1930 (89). With such considerable variance in the periods of dry
years, it is not possible to predict the exact rainfall for any single
year in the future, although some progress has been made in this
line (4). The outstanding fact is that dry years and the accom-
panying reductions of forage production and grazing capacity occur
with such frequency that good range management requires stocking
the range on a basis sufficiently conservative to avoid severe drought
losses or forced sales.
1875
I 885
I 895
I 905
1915
1925
1935
FIGURE 47. — Dry years may occur In groups, with greatly varying precipitation even
during generally favorable periods, as shown hy actual rainfall records at Miles City,
Mont., a representative station for the range country.
PROGRESSIVE DEFICIENCIES
It is serious enough to have to plan for 3 or 4 years out of every
10 having less than average rainfall, but the longer weather cycles
are particularly disheartening and require even more careful plan-
ning of range use. For example, Forest Service compilations show
a decided downward trend in precipitation for the entire Intermoun-
tain Region since about 1908. In California there was a downward
trend of 8 inches during the 80-year period from 1850 to 1930 ($1)]
and further calculations show that the trend prevailed through 1934
(fig. 48). Such deficiencies may represent only the drier portions of
long precipitation cycles, and it is possible that the trend may turn
and continue upward for several decades. However, when progres-
sive moisture deficiencies accumulate over the active span of 2 or 3
142
THE WESTERN RANGE
generations, even the peaks of short-term cycles need to be discounted
in management plans that are to provide for avoiding excessive deple-
tion. There is little question that this long-time deficiency in Cali-
fornia has contributed to a depletion in that State of nearly 45 per-
cent on private ranges and more than 50 percent on State and public-
domain ranges.
1850 '60
'80
'90
1900
'10
'20
FIGDEB 48. — A downward trend of 8 inches in precipitation has occurred in California
during the past 85 years.
CORRESPONDING FLUCTUATIONS IN RANGE VEGETATION
The density and character of vegetation in the natural state are
largely determined by climate. Even the casual observer is struck
by the sparseness of western range vegetation, which is roughly in
proportion to the rainfall zones in figure 44. A forest or pasture in
the East, seen from directly above, covers all or nearly all of the
ground. In the West, natural range vegetation covers on the aver-
age 20 to 50 percent of the ground, and less than 10 percent in the
desert areas.
The adaptability of the individual plant to fluctuating climatic
conditions, including the power of recuperation after severe loss of
vigor during drought, is probably the most striking feature of wes-
tern-range vegetation. Adjustments in the structure of plants which
adapt them to dry climate, and which result in lower or more efficient
water use, include reduced size, both of the whole plant and of the
various parts, such as stems and leaves, thorns, hairs, resin, and wax
on the stems and leaves, leaves that curl or fold, and leaves that
drop off quickly, as in most cacti.
Many range plants make very effective use of the available water.
Some of the native grasses require less than 400 pounds of water
to produce one pound of dry plant material — in decided contrast
with the requirements of many cultivated crops. The water re-
quirement for alfalfa is over 800 pounds, and higher for some other
plants (126). Moreover, Forest Service experiments in central
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS 143
Arizona have indicated that transpiration from native shrubs and
grasses during the summer is only 10 percent greater than evapora-
tion from bare soil.
In spite of all these unusual characteristics of range plants, how-
ever, they have decided limits of endurance. There is a rather
definite point in the drying of each kind of soil at which plants wilt,
according to Briggs and Shantz (20). Most plants in the semidesert
type wilt temporarily every afternoon during the summer.
Adequate soil moisture is determined very largely by the frequency
of effective rainfall. Many light rains are not effective in promoting
plant growth, any more than they contribute to the underground
water supply. Light rains of 0.25 inch or less, which evaporate
quickly, usually have only a very temporary benefit for the vegeta-
tion and contribute little lasting benefit to forage growth. Under
usual summer conditions with dry soil, 0.5 inch or more may be
required to start plant growth effectively. Then the growth may
be greatly curtailed or stopped during the long periods between effec-
tive rainfall. The average period between precipitation of 0.5 inch
or more was found to be 34 days at the Great Basin Experimental
Kange, a. Forest Service branch station in central Utah. Effective
rainfall is a vital consideration in sound range management because
in reality overgrazing usually allows the forage to be used too closely
between rains. Overgrazing on an experimental pasture at the
Great Basin range caused a decline of 37 percent in the stand of
grasses over a period of years, as compared to a conservatively grazed
area.
The range vegetation is in a constantly fluctuating balance with
the climate and other habitat factors such as soils and animals. The
vegetation is naturally reduced extremely during drought but, given
favorable rainfall, the range comes back after each decline — unless
the natural decline during drought is so emphasized and intensified
by overgrazing as to cause a fatal or permanent decline.
Altogether, the adaptability and recuperative powers of range
plants have not been fully appreciated. Neither have range users
as a group recognized the endurance limits of range vegetation, the
variations in vigor of individual plants, and the extreme fluctuations
in forage productive capacity over the range as a whole. This fail-
ure to recognize the fundamental nature of the resource has more
than fully discounted the recuperative abilities of range forage un-
der existing climatic conditions and has been a major factor in the
range depletion outlined in other sections of this report.
RANGE FORAGE PRODUCTION DECLINES IN DRY YEARS
Forage production varies greatly from year to year. The volume
of range forage produced is actually made up of growth made by
plant parts which livestock relish and eat readily. By and large,
the grasses, especially perennials, furnish the bulk of the feed, so
that measurements of forage production are usually based mainly
upon the growth made by the existing stand of grasses. But the
stand itself fluctuates greatly. During the 1933-34 drought, 74.8
percent of the short grass plants were killed on overgrazed experi-
mental pastures in western Kansas and 64.6 percent on moder-
ately grazed areas
144
THE WESTERN RANGE
Fluctuations in height growth of key range grasses effectively
show the nature of the problem which must be faced each year in
range use. For example, height growth of Smith's wheatgrass near
Miles City, Mont., was 13 inches in 1933, 1 inch in 1934, and 15
inches in 1935, according to Forest Service measurements. Height
growth of grasses has been shown to have a close relationship to
rainfall in numerous other Forest Service experiments (93, 30, 115) .
4000
3200
.2400
o 800
Average
Forage
Product on
Conservative
Stocking
1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935
FIGURE 49. — Range forage production fluctuates so greatly from year to year that con-
servative stocking must be 20 percent or more below average production to furnish
adequate forage in all but lowest years.
The variations in the height growth of grass are indeed consider-
able, but the variations in actual amounts of forage produced are
even more startling. In Forest Service studies of important forage
plants in several parts of the West, production of black grama in
southern New Mexico varied from 98.9 grams per square meter in
1926 to 1.1 grams in 1928, with no production in 1934; Rothrock's
grama in southern Arizona varied from 66.1 grams in 1927 to 6.9
grams in 1928; and mixed grasses in eastern Montana varied from
178.2 grams in 1927 to 24.9 grams in 1934. Mixed perennial grasses
in central Utah varied from 3,598 grams per square rod in 1925 to
1,276 grams in 1934, with an average production of 2,379 grams over
a 12-year period (fig. 49). It is obvious that stocking the range
on the basis of average forage production would have provided ade-
quate range feed in only 6 of the 12 years. Conservative stocking
at approximately 20 percent below the average would have provided
adequate forage in 9 years. This would have left considerable
surplus feed in some years, which in itself is a form of insurance
against inadequate range-feed production during drought.
The quantity of reserve range feed needed varies somewhat in
different regions depending in part upon the relative frequency and
severity of drought. Conservative stocking at a point 25 percent
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS 145
below the average has been recommended by the Forest Service for
the semidesert grass type (31).
On a national-forest range in central Utah, where conservative
grazing has taken the forage fluctuations into account, the stand
of forage has been improved 100 to 200 percent on spring ranges,
and as much as 400 to 500 on depleted parts of the summer range,
since the range was put under management (154-, PP- 5%0-554). On
the other hand, potentially better privately owned range areas in
Ford and Parrish Canyons, subject to similar climate, but continu-
ally overgrazed for at least 10 years, were found to have lost 75 to
85 percent of the original total vegetation by 1930 (10) .
EFFECT OF DRY SEASONS ON GRAZING USE
Climate largely determines the seasons of the year when range
use is practicable. It is only natural that livestock owners should
graze their animals on the range, where feed is cheap, as long as
possible. However, snow and stormy weather usually prevent winter
grazing on the high mountain ranges, although at lower elevations
winter or yearlong grazing is often practiced. All in all, the criti-
cal seasons of the year on the range usually coincide with the occur-
rence of dry or otherwise unfavorable climatic conditions.
In the Southwest, the spring is ordinarily the most difficult season
for range vegetation, as well as for range livestock. Temperatures
rise sufficiently high to permit vegetative growth, but the necessary
moisture is usually lacking. The soil and air are exceedingly dry,
and winds often blow day after day. The dry soil loosened by graz-
ing animals blows away from some plants exposing their roots and
is deposited on others. On the Jornada range in southern New
Mexico the black grama grass on several thousand acres of range
was covered over and killed by deposits of several inches of sand
blown from an adjacent severely overgrazed range in 1917 and 1918.
During the drought, unmanaged range, heavily overgrazed, espe-
cially in the spring, declined 81 percent in comparison with a de-
cline of 58 percent on the more conservatively grazed Jornada range
(93).
The problem of adequate range forage during the spring and
fall seasons is also serious in the intermountain region. Spring
feed is especially important to give lambs and calves a proper start.
A conservative grazing system introduced experimentally by the
Forest Service at the United States Sheep Station in southeastern
Idaho brought about a 15-percent improvement in spring-fall ranges
in 9 years. Sheep were turned onto the range in the spring only
after soil moisture and rising temperatures had allowed the bunch-
grasses to become well started. In the same 9 years, forage pro-
duction declined 50 percent on unmanaged range where too many
sheep were placed on the range too early in the spring and were
allowed to overgraze the vegetation.
VEGETATIVE STAND DECREASES AFTER DROUGHT
In 1935 the stockmen and others in many sections of the West
were surprised by what appeared to be quick recovery of range
vegetation from the severe 1934 drought. Once again, just as in
64946—36 11
146
THE WESTERN RANGE
previous decades, came overconfident statements to the effect that
only a few more drops of rain are all that the West needs to "bring
the range back" (3). What actually happened was rather less
reassuring than what was popularly assumed to have occurred.
True, grasses made good height growth over most of the West
where good rains fell. For example, the height growth of spiked
wheatgrass in southern Idaho was 8 inches in 1935 as compared to
4.6 inches in 1934, and black grama in southern New Mexico was
16.1 inches in 1935, as against 2.2 inches in 1934. But the stand
or density of vegetation was far from being brought back, especially
on overgrazed ranges. Measurements in 1935 showed that the grass
density even on plots protected from grazing declined 77 percent
as a result of the 1934 drought in central Arizona. Measurements
at several locations in the West showed that as a result of the 1934
drought, the density of grasses continued to decrease in 1935 even
1600
400
I
(0200
CO
s
MIXED PERENNIAL
GRASSES -IDAHO
BUNCHGRASS
UTAH
BLACK GRAMA
NEW MEXICO
1933 1934 1935
1933 1934 1935
1933 1934 1935
FIGURE 50. — EFFECT OF DROUGHT ON AREA OP GRASS TUFTS.
The density of vegetation continued to decline in 1935 in all of these three regions,
as a result of the 1934 drought, even on ungrazed plots.
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS 147
on ungrazed plots, although the 1935 rainfall was about normal
(fig. 50). Those who saw "recovery" in 1935 failed to realize that
livestock cannot thrive permanently on a single year's good height
growth produced by a stand of vegetation thinned and weakened
by drought and overgrazing. It requires both a good stand or
density of vegetation and height growth to produce the volume of
forage necessary for stabilized range use. Forest Service studies
show that it takes 3 to 5 years of favorable precipitation to restore
drought-depleted stands of sod-forming grasses and good-seeding
bunchgrasses even under conservative grazing. Unfortunately, the
types containing poor-seeding bunchgrasses are widespread in the
West and have continued to deteriorate, as shown in previous
sections.
The continued decreases in stands of range forage observed in 1935
confirm studies on the Jornada Range in southern New Mexico, which
show that the stand of black grama increases or decreases in accord-
ance with the rainfall for the previous year (93). Thus unusually
low rainfall in 1921 caused a decrease of 89 percent in the stand on
ungrazed plots during the 2 years 1922 and 1923. The loss was largely
restored by 1926 under higher rainfall. Measurements during the
same period on range overgrazed year after year showed that the
black grama was completely killed out during the drought of 1922
and 1923, and was replaced by snakeweed and other worthless or poor
forage plants during the following years of higher rainfall.
CYCLIC FLUCTUATIONS IN VEGETATIVE GROWTH
The foregoing examples indicate the nature of the cyclic trends in
the stand of range vegetation. Just as the volume of wood grown
each year by a tree (as indicated by the thickness of tree rings)
reflects the annual and cyclic variations in precipitation, so the range
vegetation fluctuates from year to year and over periods of dry and
wet years.
Fluctuations in density of range vegetation, broadly corresponding
to increased or decreased precipitation, have been observed in many
parts of the West. For example, a stand of mixed perennial grasses
in southern Idaho varied from 969 cm2 per square meter in 1926 to
296 cm2 in 1935. A similar stand in central Utah varied from 774 cm2
in 1931 to 295 cm2 in 1935. A bunchgrass type in northern Arizona
varied from 856 cm2 in 1912 to 2,686 cm2 in 1930. The stand of vege-
tation may recuperate wonderfully in good years only to decrease
again during drought. Overgrazing or other practices which fail to
accord with good range management and violate the scheme of nature
so impair the vegetation that instead of recuperating during yearsi of
favorable rainfall, it actually regains very little of its original stand
and then declines further in the next drought. Forest Service studies
on western Utah winter ranges show that the drought from 1931 to
1934 caused a 20-percent decrease in available forage plants on
ungrazed plots, but on overgrazed areas within a few miles of water,
depletion was approximately 60 percent (136) .
Severe drought also affects the soil unfavorably. The stand of
vegetation is so reduced that the unprotected soil is exposed to greatly
148 THE WESTERN
accelerated erosion by both wind and water. The now famous "dust
bowl" of western Kansas and eastern Colorado is an extreme example
of wind erosion during and following drought. The removal of the
fertile upper soil layers exposes the raw subsoil and makes it just so
much more difficult to restore the range vegetation. Accelerated
water erosion, which is more fully discussed in another section, is fully
as detrimental to range productivity as wind erosion.
That actual management of livestock on the range has utterly dis-
regarded the probability of recurrent drought is shown by a com-
parison of livestock numbers with rainfall. In New Mexico, for
example, the major peaks in livestock numbers correspond with the
major drought periods. Although rainfall steadily decreased from
1931 to the low point in 1934, livestock numbers continued to increase
during the entire period (fig. 51) . On January 1, 1934, after one dry
year and at the beginning of one of the worst drought years ever
recorded in the State, livestock numbers were at the highest point
in over a decade. The Government relief purchases in the summer
of 1934 automatically reduced livestock numbers and absorbed some
of the losses that private owners otherwise would have suffered.
The same sort of thing happened in New Mexico in nearly every
drought period. Although rainfall dropped abruptly during 1916
and 1917, livestock numbers increased in those two years and dropped
off rapidly in 1918 and 1919. Again, the rainfall decreased greatly
during the period from 1920 to 1922, but livestock numbers increased
during 1920 and 1921 to a peak on January 1, 1922, then dropped off
sharply through wholesale starvation losses and distress sales during
the culmination of the drought in 1922 and early 1923. Undoubtedly
the ranges were badly depleted in 1917 and 1922 so that the peak of
livestock numbers in 1934 was considerably below the preceding two
high points. The records for other States and for the entire western
range area show much the same thing.
Some vegetative types are much more susceptible to depletion dur-
ing drought than others. A conservatively grazed black grama type
in southern New Mexico declined 77 percent from 1933 to 1935, and a
lightly grazed short-grass type in eastern Montana declined 67 per-
cent, but a mixed perennial type in the Wasatch Mountains of cen-
tral Utah declined only 48 percent during the same period. Forest
Service records of these areas during previous droughts indicate simi-
lar relationships. Stands of vegetation which vary most offer least
resistance to continued depletion as a result of overgrazing. This
factor of susceptibility to depletion must be taken into account in
any program of use adjustment.
CLIMATIC GUIDES TO PERMANENT RANGE USE
The delimitation of the range area and of definite regions in which
range or agricultural use is particularly hazardous, is a necessary
step in any forward-looking land-use program. Final fixing of the
boundaries of marginal and submarginal areas will, of course, be
dependent upon economic and other considerations, but climate alone
can indicate broad regional characteristics of suitability for grazing
and cultivation.
For example, the annual rainfall is below 5 inches over much of
the Mohave-Gila Desert in southwestern Arizona and southeastern
CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS
149
California. The available soil moisture there is simply too scant to
support sufficient palatable vegetation, and the supply of water for
livestock is so scarce that little attempt has been made to graze large
areas. Although the desert may furnish occasional winter grazing,
it is not dependable.
125
100
&
1
^
fe
K
§
r5
ie
50
Rainfall
V
Livestock
Numbers
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
FIGURE 51.— STOCKING NOT ADJUSTED TO RAINFALL.
Livestock numbers increased in New Mexico during each of three such major drought
periods as that of 1933-34, shown above. A typical example of the stocking of ranges
without regard for natural fluctuations in range forage production. (Percentages are
based on average annual precipitation and on animal units as of January 1 for the
period 1915-35.)
Adjacent to the desert is the zone with 5 to 10 inches of rainfall
extending from south-central Arizona as far north as Boise, Idaho.
Nearly all of this great semidesert area is grazed at some time during
the year, but drought is frequent and the range types are very
susceptible to depletion, facts which explain why the area de-
150 THE WESTERN RANGE
teriorated so greatly during the major droughts of 1893, 1903, 1924,
1928 to 1931, and 1934. All of these factors combine to indicate
that at least the drier part of the southern half of this great semi-
desert zone may be marginal for permanent ranching. The northern
half, where cooler, temperatures encourage longer retention of soil
moisture, has better forage production and offers better potential
permanent range use. Actually the whole area has been badly de-
pleted by continued overgrazing, especially during severe drought.
Dry farming has been attempted on many western range areas,
where even ranching is difficult. Misguided settlers tried to grow
cultivated crops without irrigation where rainfall is too low for
other than range use in parts of every western State. The range was
plowed under, cultivated for a few years, and then abandoned. Out-
standing examples of such settlement in zones with less than a
15-inch rainfall have occurred in eastern Montana, eastern Colorado,
southern New Mexico, and northwestern Utah, within the past
decade. The net result has been the financial ruin of the hopeful
farmers, and the physical ruin of the range area involved. Best
permanent use of the range resource requires a national land-use
program that will prevent repetition of such ill-advised exploitation.
The climatic characteristics prevailing on the principal range
types, and their effect upon the depletion of such types, are major
problems affecting range use, as will be evident later in this report
in the classification of types for land use. Where the fluctuations
and adversities of climate are not too great to permit range use,
probably the outstanding prerequisite of management is the necessity
for conservative grazing. Stocking the range at a point sufficiently
below average forage production to provide adequate feed for the
livestock in all but the most severe drought years is almost axiomatic
in management to minimize drought losses, assure stable livestock
production, and maintain the range resource. Beyond that, however,
much more intensive study and analysis is required for a final
solution of the climatic phases bearing on range land use.
Furthermore, although the land that is too dry or otherwise un-
suitable for range use may be taken out of production, there still
remains the major problem, in the face of climatic risks now known
to occur, of developing systems of range management that will
enable restoration and maintenance of the forage resources for those
areas that remain in use. Years such as 1934 make a dismal picture,
but there are always years of plenty that brighten the aspect. The
problems are not insurmountable; they are susceptible of solution,
as outlined in the program sections of this report.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
By W. R. CHAPLINB, Chief, Division of Range Research
"The Last of 5,000", that graphic sketch by Charles Kussell,
world-famous Montana cowboy artist, depicts strikingly the ulti-
mate effect of excessive stocking. One feels that the poor, lone
"critter", so utterly emaciated and filled with despair, will soon
be a feast for the coyotes lurking in the background. Granville
Stuart, in his Forty Years on the Frontier (138) , writes :
Charlie was in charge of a herd in the Judith Basin, when the owner, who
lived in Helena, wrote and asked how his cattle was getting along. For
answer Charlie sent him the sketch.
The important cause, Stuart indicates, was range depletion,
brought about by overstocking. He describes how, during the sum-
mer of 1885, more than 100,000 head of cattle and innumerable
bands of sheep trailed into Montana onto an already crowded range.
Then came the first heavy losses from the eating of poisonous plants,
in the spring of 1886, because of the shortage of palatable forage.
Again that summer, more stock poured into Montana ; it was hot and
dry, and a severe winter followed. "The cows were all thin" and
losses were extremely heavy. Some herds —
perished outright. Others lost from 75 to 80 percent of their cattle. * * *
In the spring of 1887 the ranges presented a tragic aspect. Along the streams
and in the coulees everywhere were strewn the carcasses of dead cattle. Those
that were left alive were poor and ragged in appearance, weak, and easily
mired in the mudholes.
This may seem an extreme situation, but many like it were re-
corded in early historical accounts. Bentley (16), for example, in
explaining the tendency to expand the cattle business in western
Texas, states:
As a result of this madness, the range was overstocked, and a dozen cows
and sheep were crowded on the "free grass", where half the number was too
many. The ranges were quickly eaten and trampled out. * * *
One cowman decided to sell his herd of 25,000 cattle in 1882 :
He did not get his price, hence had to hold over his herd through the winter
of 1882-83. It was an exceptionally severe one, and the following spring only
about 10,000 head were rounded up. * * * On the 100,000 acres he was
using he might have held 10,000 head of cattle safely, * * * but in his
eagerness to get rich fast he greatly overstocked the range, made no provision
for winter feed, never thought it necessary to provide any sort of shelter for
his stock, and suffered the inevitable consequences of this reckless way of
doing business.
Gordon (58), in a special report on the range area accompanying
the Tenth Census in 1880 considered some ranges overstocked and
depleted even then. He referred to these conditions in such state-
ments as the following :
The best quality of pasture of today (in Colorado) is only comparatively
good, the best quality of 20 years ago having been essentially changed. * * *
The character of the natural grazing in southwest Montana has greatly depre-
ciated. Stockmen of the longest experience reported that a cow ranged 50
151
152 THE WESTERN RANGE
acres to find what grew on 20 acres 6 years ago, and on 5 acres in 1870. * * *
"Free range" * * * resulted in excessive grazing, and rendered many wide
areas of Nevada south of the Humboldt River wholly unfit for more than a
limited stock occupancy.
Thornber (144), in describing the early situation in Arizona,
stated :
The serious consequences attending the grazing, ultimately, of nearly double
the number of stock on the ranges that could be carried safely year after year,
culminated in the disastrous droughty period of 1891 to 1894. * * * With
a general shortage of feed and water on the ranges, stock died off on every
hand. It is estimated that over 250,000 cattle, out of somewhat more than
800,000 all told, perished on the ranges in Arizona alone during the period of
1891 to 1894, not to mention the number of sheep and other grazing animals.
In many localities from 25 to 50 percent of the stock died from starvation,
while as many more were left in such condition as to require a season for
recovery.
President Theodore Roosevelt's commission to study the land sit-
uation and to make recommendations for the best utilization of
the remaining public domain, after an exhaustive study including
1,400 answers to a circular letter addressed to stockmen throughout
the West, reported in 1905 (H6), in effect, that the general lack of
control of the range lands had resulted in overgrazing and in the
ruin of millions of acres of otherwise valuable grazing territory.
There can be little question but that these writers and the Roose-
velt Commission were convinced that during the eighties, nineties,
and early 1900's, ranges were excessively stocked and were being
depleted as a result.
The range wars of these early days were still another symptom
of overstocking. Had range feed been sufficiently abundant to meet
the needs of all the livestock that new settlers and stockmen aspired
to graze, little reason for conflict would have developed. However,
when the established stockmen witnessed the invasion of "trespass-
ing" herds and saw their winter's feed supply vanishing, as hungry
animals consumed every vestige of forage, deadly strife resulted.
Has excessive stocking, the grazing of more livestock or other
animals on a range in any year than the available range feed can
sustain year in and year out, continued on range lands, and has it
caused range deterioration ? Some stockmen and others are not con-
vinced that it has. The serious and widespread depletion of range
lands has already been pointed out. If excessive stocking has been
responsible, at least in part, and if present stocking constitutes over-
stocking, there should be evidence to prove it.
EVIDENCES OF EXCESSIVE STOCKING
Evidences of excessive stocking include such features as :
(1) The inability of the range to support the large numbers of
livestock carried since about 1890 within the range area, indicated
in two ways — by an increasing use of feeds other than range forage,
and by a declining trend in numbers of livestock grazing range lands.
(2) Deterioration of the range itself, which is not alone due to
climate.
(3) Present stocking considerably in excess of estimated grazing
capacity.
(4) Serious losses and other unsatisfactory production as a result
of range feed shortage.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
153
NUMBERS OF LIVESTOCK WITHIN RANGE AREA
In order to get at the evidences of excessive stocking, it is nec-
essary to consider first the numbers of livestock which have been car-
ried within the range area.
The approximate numbers of livestock,11 expressed in animal
units,12 from 1870 to 1935, within the 11 far-western States and the
range portion of the six Plains States, are shown graphically in
figure 52.
'MILLIONS)
> ro
> (j\
£
TOTAL ANIMAL UN ITS -YEAR LONG BASIS
-0 Oi 5 5 C
££
J
^
^\
£
•^-^
S~\
/
**<&>
'~-\
/
^* —
,''
-.-../'
' ~^**S
•—•'
f.
X
/
1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
i i i i i i i i i
I 1 1 1 1 I l l I
1 1 1 I
70 I860 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1935
— Eleven Western States Range Portion 6 Plains States
FIGURE 52. — Trends in total animal units in the range country.
Even in the face of severe losses in critical periods, numbers of
livestock show a rising trend for the first 48 years. Starvation and
winter losses of the eighties were soon forgotten; those stockmen
who still had a remnant on which to build and new settlers with
capital brought in from the East forced numbers on upward.
Livestock were pushed back into the less accessible mountain ranges
and into the poorly watered desert areas. The depression, drought,
and lack of range feed of the early nineties again took their toll
and halted the upward trend for a few years, but another upward
surge, principally in sheep, brought a new high peak about 1903.
A still higher peak was reached in 1918, the result of the World
War urge for increased production and the encouragement of high
"The yearly estimates of numbers of livestock in the range area are derived from the
published revised estimates of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics for the 17 Western
States for January of each year from 1919 to 1935, and before that time, from unpub-
lished revisions by that Bureau where available, and other similar revisions based on
original published estimates of the Department of Agriculture and Census records. For
the range portion of the six Plains States, the January 1 estimates for census years were
determined by using a proportionate ratio of census numbers in counties in the range
area to that for the whole State. Although these numbers cannot be considered as
accurate for all years, they do show with reasonable accuracy the main trends for the
period under consideration.
12 An animal unit for purposes of this report is considered to be one head of cattle,
one horse, one mule, five sheep, five swine, or five goats. The ratio of five to one was
considered a suitable average of the generally lower ratio between cattle and sheep on
the range, which in places is found by the Forest Service to be as low as three to one.
and the higher ratio between cattle and sheep in the feed lot used by animal husbandmen.
154 THE WESTERN RANGE
prices and easy credit. At that time there were approximately
13,254,000 cattle, 22,457,000 sheep, 3,347,000 horses and mules, and
3,565,000 swine and goats in the 11 far-western States. At the
same time, in the range portion of the six Plains States there were
approximately 8,082,000 cattle, 1,478,000 sheep, 2,837,000 horses and
mules, and 5,276,000 swine and goats. Since the war there has been
a declining trend in livestock numbers with an abrupt drop in 1934.
Total number of animals within the range area is not an entirely
reliable criterion of overstocking since it does not tell the whole
story. Numbers which have grazed on the range is the important
point. Those who have considered that, because numbers within the
range area have held up during the last 35 years, there has been no
widespread overstocking, have overlooked several important factors.
True, animal units on hand January 1, 1935, in the 11 far-western
States were only 4.4 percent below the 35-year average; and in the
range portion of the 6 Plains States, about 7 percent below ; but such
calculations fail to take into account the influence of supplemental
feed, irrigated pastures, and other factors.
NUMBERS OF LIVESTOCK ON RANGE AND OTHER FEED
In the early days of the West nearly all livestock obtained their
feed from range forage. A few ranches put up a small quantity of
hay, but this was used primarily for maintaining the saddle horses
rather than as supplemental feed for other livestock, except when
deep snows or other emergencies required.
When the pressure for range became acute the cattlemen, who were
the first to feel it, not only began to practice winter feeding but also
to purchase ranch properties on which they could produce hay and
other roughages. Later, sheepmen in turn were forced to take simi-
lar action (166). The bringing into permanent crop production of
about 100 million acres in the West cut into the more desirable range
areas but made available large quantities of supplemental feeds and
also much stubble for grazing.
In 1890 there was only 34,687,000 acres of improved farm land of
all kinds in the range area, with a little over 3,600,000 acres irri-
gated; improved pastures were not abundant, and there was rela-
tively little shipment of concentrates into the range country. By
1930 the cultivated area was nearly three times as great as all im-
proved land in farms in 1890 ; hay and other forage-crop production
was nearly five times as great; irrigated land had also increased
fivefold ; improved pastures were common on farms, and millions of
acres of wheat and other grain stubble were used for grazing. Sev-
eral million tons of grain, cottonseed cake, linseed meal, and other
concentrates are now produced or shipped into the range area for
feeding. Other products used for feeding have also become of vast
importance, such as ensilage, beet pulp, pea vines, bean straw, fish
meal, and rice and fruit byproducts.
While part of this feed has been used to safeguard against losses
from inclement weather and because of changed production prac-
tices in the livestock industry, much of it has had to be used because
of increasing scarcity and lower value of range forage, manifest in
longer winter feeding periods and increased need for supplements at
other times.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
155
Numerous examples might be cited from all sections of the West
of longer winter feeding periods because of scarcity of range feed.
Cattle are now fed hay and other roughages often for 3 to 5 months,
whereas in the early days such feeds were seldom required for more
than a month or so and that commonly as a supplement to winter
grazing.
Similarly the loss of highly palatable forage plants from the
range and the necessity of livestock subsisting on low-value plants
has required use of concentrates to furnish the protein and vitamin
A (69} so essential to the well-being of the animals. Thousands of
tons of cottonseed cake, for example, are fed on southwestern ranges
and many carloads of grain and other concentrates are hauled to
ranges in other parts of the West to - supplement the low-quality
range feed now generally available. The use of this supplemental
feed, however, has made it possible to carry large numbers of live-
stock on ranges where they subsist primarily on the low-value plants
and thus overgraze the more palatable.
Table 27 presents the approximate number of livestock, expressed
in animal units per year grazed on range lands, including unirri-
gated farm pastures and stubble fields, and the approximate number
which obtained feed from harvested crops, concentrates, and other
supplements,13 and from irrigated pastures 14 from 1870 to 1935. It
is believed that the improved unirrigated farm pastures, grain
stubble, and unrecorded concentrates shipped into the range area will
offset the 11 percent decline in range area which has occurred, chiefly
since 1890.
TABLE 27. — Animal units dependent on range feed and on supplemental feed and
irrigated pastures, in the 11 far-western States and the 6 Plains States,
1870-1933
[In thousands of animal units]
Region and type of feed
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1935
11 far-western States:
On range '
4,229
9 214
12,528
11,406
10, 449
11, 180
10,699
10,032
On other feed J
204
582
1,676
3,399
7,091
9,274
7,261
7,545
Total
4,433
9,796
14,204
14, 805
17, 540
20,454
17,960
17, 577
Range portion of 6 Plains States:
On range '
1,390
2,807
6, 758
8,504
7,630
9,541
9,293
7,260
On other feed*
45
130
375
792
1,521
2,541
2,414
2,935
Total
1,435
2,937
7,133
9,296
9,151
12,082
11, 707
10, 195
Total range area:
On range l
5,619
12. 021
19,286
19, 910
18, 079
20,721
19,992
17,292
On other feed *._
249
712
2,051
4,191
8,612
11,815
9,675
10, 480
Total
5,868
12, 733
21, 337
24, 101
26,691
32, 536
29,667
27, 772
1 Including improved unirrigated farm pastures.
J Harvested crops, concentrates, and irrigated pastures.
13 The approximate number which obtained feed from harvested crops and other con-
centrates was derived for each census year by relating the number of livestock obtaining
feed from harvested crops and concentrates in 1925, as worked out by the committee of
the U. S. Department of Agriculture (Feed Resources : 11 Western States. Ext. Ser.
Circ. 41, 23 pp., illus., 1927, mimeographed), to the census record of hay and forage
crop production in 1925, and then using that same index in relation to hay and other
forage production as shown by the census in the other census years. The average
production of recent years was used in 1935 rather than the short feed production in
1934. In the main this method is comparable to considering approximately 2 tons of
cottonseed products, 2% tons of grain and other concentrates, or approximately 7 tons
of hay and fodder per animal unit per year. These figures are more conservative than
are sometimes used in determining feed requirements in the range area.
14 Two acres of irrigated pasture is considered necessary per animal unit per year.
156 THE WESTERN RANGE
DECLINING NUMBERS ON RANGE THROUGHOUT THE WEST INDICATE EXCESS
In the range portion of the Plains States, numbers on ranges
reached an early peak of over 8.5 million animal units about 1900.
After a decline of around 10 percent to 1910 a new peak was estab-
lished about 1920 when approximately 9.5 million animal units were
on these range lands. Since 1920 there has been a decline of about
24 percent, especially marked in 1934- These figures may not be
an entirely true picture of range stocking in the Plains States be-
cause of a number of uncertain factors. There are, for example,
large quantities of unrecorded grain and other feeds shipped into
this area, an unestimated area of grain fields that are grazed in
winter and as stubble, and some of the cattle recorded as on farms
and ranges on January 1 are shipped out of the area in the spring.
The difficulty of taking adequate account of these features in the
Plains States tends to show larger numbers of livestock on ranges
throughout the year than is probably the case.
In the 11 far-western States the peak of livestock on ranges was
reached about 1890, when 12.5 million animal units were obtaining
their feed from range lands, 88 percent of the livestock then in these
States. By 1910, around 10.4 million animal units were on range,
about 60 percent of the total animal units. Following another rise
to 1920 there has been a^ declining trend to 1935 when about 10
million, 57 percent of the total animal units, were on range lands.
Thus a net decline of about 20 percent has occurred on range lands
since 1890.
Figure 53 brings out the decline which occurred in the stocking of
range lands between 1890 and 1910, and again between 1920 and
1935. While the grazing of heavier animals, as a result of better
breeding and other improved animal production practices, may ac-
count in part for these declines, they are also undoubtedly due partly
to a declining range-feed supply caused by overstocking.
The rise from 1910 to 1920 represents primarily the increase
caused by war demands and does not indicate that there was range
forage available for the excess livestock. In fact there are many
indications that excessive stocking became the rule. In western
Texas, for example, the upward trend was abruptly halted in 1916
and 1917 when range conditions failed, starvation losses were wide-
spread, and forced shipments of livestock were made as ranges be-
came more depleted. Along the Texas & Pacific Railroad in the
Trans-Pecos country, ranges presented a pitiful sight. Feed gone,
carcasses of cattle in great numbers around water holes, and gaunt,
stary-eyed cattle still alive, their ribs all but protruding through
the flesh — all these evidences told a tragic story of failure to keep
numbers within safe limits of range- feed production.
The opening up of new areas by water developments, trails, and
other means, has also been a factor in holding up livestock numbers
grazing range lands. At first the more readily accessible ranges
were stocked. As high prices stimulated expansion or as exhausted
feed supplies, especially during drought, compelled removal of live-
stock from overgrazed ranges, stockmen have drilled wells, con-
structed reservoirs, and made other improvements in order to utilize
formerly unused or lightly used ranges. Such improvements ex-
panded the range livestock industry to the point of compensating
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
157
for livestock decreases necessary on many overstocked and deterio-
rating ranges.
Even the decline from 1890 to 1935 does not in itself indicate that
range feed would satisfactorily support the reduced numbers now
grazing on ranges. Many herds are being carried on little more
than a subsistence basis, aided by the feeding of concentrates. Under
such conditions of excessive stocking, cattle, sheep, and especially
goats, have continued to graze ranges after all palatable feed had
been consumed. It has been necessary for the livestock to subsist
almost entirely upon low-value plants such as the common sagebrush.
15
1
-J
i
10
1870 1880 1890 1900
Animal Units on Range
1910 1920 1930 1935
— Animal Units on Feed
FIGURE 53.— RANGE VERSUS OTHER FEED IN THE FAR-WESTERN STATES.
Despite rapid stocking of range lands between 1870 and 1890, the declining trends in
animal units on range from 1890 to 1910 and 1920 to 1935, indicate at least in part
depletion of range due to overstocking. This indication is substantiated by the
increasing use of expensive supplemental feed.
yellow brush, and weeds, which under conservative utilization would
be grazed, but little except possibly in dry years.
The striking increase in livestock carried on feeds other than range
forage shown in figure 53 is in itself an evidence of overstocking.
Stockmen do not feed hay, costing $5 to $20 or more a ton, or costly
concentrates, if adequate range pasturage worth $1 to $3 and often
less for an equal feeding period is available. Winter feeding is ex-
pensive and ranchers are now compelled to rely largely on the cheap
summer forage for profit.
VARIATION IN THE INDIVIDUAL STATES
The situation in the 11 far-western States as a whole is duplicated
to a degree in most of the individual States. New Mexico, for ex-
ample, illustrates an even more marked decline in numbers of live-
158
THE WESTERN RANGE
stock with declining grazing capacity of range lands and increasing
numbers on supplemental feed (fig. 54) . In 1890 approximately 2.1
million animal units were grazing range lands, and according to his-
torical and other evidences serious damage was being done to ranges
at that time. Both in 1900 and 1910 there were approximately 1.6
million animal units on the range. It is possible that with these
lower numbers there were favorable years when the ranges of the
State as a whole were not materially overstocked. But, by 1920,
war demands had again increased numbers on ranges to more than
2 million animal units and the evidence is ample that ranges through-
out the State were then seriously overstocked. In 1924 many cattle
had to be moved into old Mexico because of feed shortage. By 1930
2.0
1.0
1870 1880 1890 1900 1910
M Animal Units on Range
1920 1930 1935
Animal Units on Feed
FIGURE 54. — In New Mexico, a State in which livestock depend principally upon range,
a decided downward trend in range forage supply since 1890 is indicated.
numbers on ranges had dropped to about 1.5 million animal units, a
decline of about 25 percent in 10 years and approximately this same
number is grazing range lands in 1935.
In Utah, top, there has been a declining tendency in numbers of
livestock grazing range lands since 1900. The increases as a result
of war demand were not so great as in New Mexico and some other
States. Increased feed has been an important factor in maintaining
livestock in the State as a whole. In all, range lands and unirri-
gated pastures were furnishing only about 45 percent of the feed
for livestock in 1935, in contrast to about 77 percent in 1900, as
shown in figure 55.
In contrast to declining trends in most other range areas where
depletion has resulted from overgrazing, the 33 counties in the range
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
159
portion of western Nebraska have carried increasing numbers of
livestock on range up through 1930 (fig. 56). These counties are
made up primarily of the sand-hill tall-grass prairie type and
native hay meadows, which up to 1934 showed little if any deteriora-
ANIMAL UNITS ON RANGE
ANIMAL UNITS ON FEED
1935
800
600
400
200 0 200
THOUSAND UNITS
400
600
800
FIGURE 55. — In Utah the animals on feed have more than doubled since 1900, and
animal units on range have decreased in still greater numbers.
1.2
1.0
$0.8
^j
^j
5
I
-j
5 0.4
$
0.2
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
FIGURE 56. — Livestock obtaining feed from range lands in western Nebraska show an
upward trend ; care of the range on approximately 12,000,000 acres of sand-hill country,
wuich constitutes the bulk of the range in this State, has made this possible.
tion in forage production. In the sand-hill area, in fact, there ap-
pears to have been an improvement in forage conditions during the
last 50 years as a result of control of prairie fires and conservative
grazing.
160
THE WESTERN RANGE
BANGS COUNTIES SHOW MABKED DECLINES
When one considers numbers of livestock within most of the
counties primarily made up of range land, the effect of overstocking
in causing decline in numbers over the years becomes quite marked.
Owyhee County, Idaho, furnishes a good example. If we may take
historical records and statements of old-time stockmen as a basis,
there is a rather clear indication that in 1888 some 100,000 cattle and
horses grazed yearlong in the county and at least 50,000 sheep, a
200
^o"
§150
5
r--^^
X
X
X
"^^^^
/
:s
o
5
,'00
V
^N^
^
_ — - — -~~"
^
^
*
«-J
^ 50
^
0
1
-
900 1910 1920 1930 1935
— — — Cochise County, Arizona. — Maricopa County, Arizona.
(Mainly range) (Mainly irrigated)
FIGURE 57. — Striking contrast in variation of livestock numbers between a range county
and an irrigated county in Arizona.
total of about 110,000 animal units. These old-timers believe that
at most times the range was overgrazed. In 1930, 32,000 cattle and
horses were grazing on the range about half of the year, and 178,000
sheep not more than 5 months of the year. If these reduced seasons
of use are taken into account, there has been a decrease of over 70
percent in the grazing on range lands since 1888. This is an indica-
tion of serious reduction in grazing capacity, which must in turn
be due to depletion of forage on the ranges. In this case, the deple-
tion amounts to approximately 70 percent of virgin conditions, as
shown by an intensive plot survey of the county by the Forest
Service in 1932.
Many other range counties throughout the West show materially
lower numbers of livestock because of overstocking, although supple-
mental feed has, in part, offset the decline in range feed. For ex-
ample, numbers of livestock expressed in animal units in Malheur
County, just across the Oregon line from Owyhee County, Idaho,
EXCESSIVE STOCKING 161
have declined, according to the census, about 30 percent between 1900
and 1930 ; and in Rio Arriba, Socorro, and Sierra Counties, N. Mex.,
60, 68, and 52 percent, respectively.
While numbers of livestock in most range counties have been de-
clining, other counties in which considerable irrigation has devel-
oped have shown marked increases and thus have offset the range
counties in the figures for the State as a whole. Maricopa County,
Ariz., for example, had only 8,000 animal units according to the
census of 1890; but by 1900 it had 89,000 animal units; and 151,000
by 1935— an increase of 70 percent since 1900. Figure 57 illustrates
this trend in contrast to the 39 percent decline in Cochise County, a
range county in the same State. Yakima County, Wash., had 46,000
animal units in 1910 and 114,000 in 1930. Although the actual in-
crease in animal units has not generally been so great, many other
counties in which irrigation has been developed have shown in-
creases up to 50 percent.
All in all, the evidences of excessive stocking shown by livestock
numbers are marked. Declines of 24 percent in animal units graz-
ing on ranges in the range portion of the Plains States since 1920, and
of 20 percent in the 11 far- western States since 1890, have added
importance when it is considered that many areas of poor accessibility
have been opened up since 1890 and most range livestock are now
being carried on a subsistence basis. Similar declines are evident in
important range States, and even greater reductions in many range
counties. The greatly increased feeding of supplements more costly
than range forage is still another striking evidence that present
numbers carried on the range represents in most cases excessive
stocking.
EVIDENCE AFFORDED BY RANGE DETERIORATION ITSELF
Severe depletion, as brought out in the preceding chapter, has
occurred generally on western ranges. All types and all parts of the
West have suffered. In the aggregate, range lands show a deteriora-
tion of 52 percent. No other explanation for this depletion than
excessive stocking and overgrazing in their various forms can be
deduced from the evidence at hand.
DEPLETION NOT DUE TO CLIMATE ALONE
Stockmen generally point to drought as the primary cause of de-
pletion of their ranges. The importance of this factor has already
been made clear, but there is no substantial evidence that it is the,
decisive factor in any but exceptional cases. There has been no
general recent change in climate despite the recent dry cycle of 5 to
nearly 20 years in different parts of the West. In the northern plains,
according to the climatic records at Miles City, one of the oldest sta-
tions, the recent dry cycle is no worse than the dry period of the
eighties nor as long.
Specific evidence that climate alone is not responsible for depletion
appears in the comparable quadrat records of conservatively grazed
and ungrazed plots on semidesert ranges of southern New Mexico
(93). Conservatively grazed areas varied with rainfall almost di-
64946—36 12
162 THE WESTERN RANGE
rectly, as did ungrazed comparable plots. On the other hand, range
areas excessively stocked deteriorated more rapidly, recovered more
slowly, and consistently supported a poorer stand of forage.
Fenced and conservatively used areas throughout the West are
invariably better than excessively stocked and therefore heavily
grazed ranges. But drought does not stop at fence lines.
REASONABLE GRAZING NOT DETRIMENTAL
Investigations have shown that a reasonable degree of cropping is
not detrimental to plant growth. Studies (116} in the mountains of
central Utah indicate that "grazing closely twice or even three times
in a (summer) season, provided the first grazing is late enough and
the intervals are sufficient for the vegetation quite to recover from
each cropping, ordinarily does not seriously affect the yield and
vigor of the plant cover."
The sand hills of Nebraska already cited are an example of a large
area under private ownership, about 12 million acres, where the
vegetation has been maintained or improved in recent years under
grazing. There, slight deterioration of the vegetative cover is so
apt to start blowing of sand that damage can be readily recognized.
Rainfall is sufficient, and the character of the vegetation is such
that when the cause of damage is overcome a rather rapid recovery
is made.
Under regulation of grazing on the national forests an effort has
been made to adjust numbers of livestock to the sustained grazing
capacity of the range forage. While there is still more or less deple-
tion of ranges from their virgin conditions prevailing within na-
tional forests, and while adjustments in recent dry years have not
entirely kept pace with depletion, most of the national forest ranges
under grazing use have shown improvement in forage conditions
since they were placed under administration by the Department of
Agriculture.
Even on semidesert grass and shrub ranges of the Jornada Experi-
mental Range in southern New Mexico, where vegetative conditions
vary widely from year to year, studies (93) show that, on sandy
soils —
* * * the average density of black grama over the 13-year period (1915
to 1927) was practically the same under conservative grazing as under no
grazing. The decline during drought was rather similar under both condi-
tions, but the return of favorable rainfall brought more rapid recovery under
conservative grazing. Conservative grazing appears to break up the large,
separated tufts formed under freedom from use into smaller tufts better
adapted to make efficient use of the available soil moisture, * * * black
grama remains dominant after drought in spite of the rapid inroads of asso-
ciated grass and weed species.
A somewhat similar improvement and maintenance of tobosa grass
areas on clay soils was noted within the Southern desert shrub type
(30).
PLANT INDICATORS OF OVERGRAZING
A plant is, in effect, a plant-food factory. It does not draw its
food already manufactured from the soil. It must take up water
and essential plant-food elements from the soil via the root system
and transport them to the leaves where, together with carbon dioxide
taken in through the leaves from the air, it manufactures the ma-
EXCESSIVE STOCKING
163
terials which make possible its further growth, the development of
seeds, and— of particular importance in range management— the
storage of food for winter maintenance and the beginning of herbage
growth the following spring. If the leaves which form this manu-
facturing plant are consumed before sufficient foods have been
formed to take care of the essential growth functions, the plant's
vigor will be sapped. If the food supply is inadequate, the plant
may succumb. It is of vital importance, therefore, to have a sub-
stantial leafage available on plants during the growing season.
In the semiarid range country of the West there is naturally a
critical balance between the moisture available for growth and the
needs of the plant cover, with a resulting competition for moisture.
Where grazing is introduced and the range is overstocked, the
palatable plants are grazed first and most heavily and are naturally
the ones to suffer most in this intense competition. The inevitable
thinning of the palatable plants releases the secondary species and
gives them the opportunity to increase in density. Where they in
turn are heavily grazed, in the absence of the more palatable
plants, opportunity is given for still less palatable species to
gain dominance.
Overgrazing for an extended period will thus leave "earmarks"
which can usually be recognized (7P), especially in the scarcity of
the choicest range plants and the predominance of low-value annual
weeds and grasses, or other plants which have little or no value
for grazing. Along with these signs will be others equally obvious,
the presence of dead and partly dead stumps or stubby branches of
shrubs, noticeable damage to tree reproduction, and erosion and
barrenness of the soil, usually accompanied by a series of stock
trails terracing the slopes.
To recognize current overgrazing is more difficult, yet it is im.-
portant in order to make timely adjustment. It is seldom that all
species are of equal palatability on a range. Since it is the important
palatable plants which furnish the bulk of the feed, it is essential
to use them as helpful criteria, to observe closely the degree to
which they are grazed, and to stock on a basis that will not injure
them. Many palatable grasses on western ranges can only sustain
their vigor and density under a degree of grazing which will utilize
by the end of the season no more than 70 to 80 percent of their
herbage production. Of sod-forming grasses, such as most gramas,
and on soils that are moderately compact, a slightly higher per-
centage of herbage may be taken in years of favorable rainfall.
With some bunchgrasses, however, and on sandy soils, it may not be
wise to utilize even 70 percent of the palatable herbage. Palatable
shrubs can seldom maintain their vigor when more than 75 to 80
percent of the tender twigs and leatage is grazed. Still, on most
ranges, and especially on those inadequately regulated, palatable
plants are being grazed more closely than these percentages even
in favorable years when maximum herbage is produced on each
plant.
On nearly all ranges many plants of moderate and low palatability
are present, which give the appearance of considerable "feed" when
those that are more palatable have been utilized as fully as they can
withstand. Dominance of secondary species prevails on millions of
acres of ranges depleted in excess of 50 percent, and even on some
164
THE WESTERN RANGE
showing a 25- to 50-percent depletion. On some of the more se-
riously deteriorated ranges these secondary species have been replaced
and only low-value or worthless plants remain. Such is the condi-
tion of many of the ranges depleted in excess of 75 percent. In the
light of such evidence, can there be doubt that excessive stocking
with its inevitable overgrazing has been an important factor in range
depletion ?
EVIDENCE AFFORDED BY PRESENT STOCKING AND ESTIMATED GRAZLNu
CAPACITY
Table 28 shows the approximate present stocking and estimated
grazing capacity of range lands by ownership jurisdictions. The
figures on present stocking on the national forests and Indian lands
are from actual records. Those for other jurisdictions have been
approximated from the best available information. The estimates
of grazing capacity are based upon field surveys of recent years and
careful examination of some 20,000 vegetation plots representative
of all range types and ownerships.
These data show that, even after the removal of large numbers
of livestock in 1934, there were still on January 1, 1935, approxi-
mately 17.3 million animal units on ranges within 'the range territory,
of which approximately 10 million were on ranges in the 11 far-
western States. In every ownership class more livestock are now
grazing range lands than the estimated grazing capacity would indi-
cate could be supported on a sustained basis year after year. They
also indicate, considering the quality of the range, a much heavier
stocking on public domain (including grazing districts) and on State
ranges than on national forests.
TABLE 28. — Present stocking (Jan. 1, 1985), estimated grazing capacity, and
degree of excess stocking on usable western range
Region and ownership jurisdiction
Present
stocking
Present
estimated
grazing
capacity
Degree of
overstock-
ing1
11 far- western States:
National forests
1,000
animal-unit
years
996
1,000
animal-unit
years
930
Percent
7. 1
Other Federal - -
1,804
1,018
77.1
Indian lands _ - -
585
435
34.5
State county municipal
834
481
73.4
Private..
5,813
4,270
36.1
Total
10, 032
7,134
40 6
Range portion (6 Plains States) :
National forests
22
22
Other Federal _._ - -
20
15
35.6
Indian lands
86
59
46.1
State, county, municipal -
1,079
476
126.5
Private
6, 053
3,126
93.6
Total -
7,260
3,698
96.3
Total range area:
National forests -
1,018
952
7.0
Other Federal . - --
1,824
1,033
76.5
Indian lands
671
494
35.9
State county municipal
1,913
957
99 8
Private - ....
11, 866
7,396
60.4
Total
17 292
10,832
59 6
i Excess over present estimated grazing capacity.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING 165
As previously indicated, the present stocking of ranges in the
Plains States may indicate heavier overstocking than actually pre-
vails because of the unknown quantity of concentrates shipped into
the area, the grain fields which are grazed in winter or as stubble,
and the heavy movements of cattle out of the area in the spring —
this last factor affecting especially State and private lands in Texas.
It will be noted that the degree of excess stocking amounts to about
7 percent on national forests. This is the lowest of all and reflects
the efforts of the Forest Service to keep grazing within proper limits.
The greater part of this overstocking on national forests is the result
of deterioration from drought and the heavy demand from per-
mittees to maintain their herds during that period when their own
ranges were extremely short of feed. During the drought of 1934,
for example, larger numbers of livestock were carried on national
forests than normally and for a longer season.
Although overstocking shows up more seriously because of the
combined deterioration from drought and overgrazing, especially in
the Plains States, it indicates a very serious situation in all parts
of the West. This is especially true of the public domain, part of
which is being placed under administration in grazing districts,
where it will require a 43 -percent reduction in number of livestock
now grazed to overcome the 77 percent overstocking which prevails.
Average excess stocking of about 60 and 100 percent on private and
State lands, respectively, indicates the serious situation prevailing
on these ownerships and helps to explain the severe deterioration in
grazing capacity already discussed in an earlier chapter.
EVIDENCE AFFORDED BY SERIOUS LOSSES AND UNSATISFACTORY PRODUCTION
When more livestock are on a range than the available forage crop
will support, it is obvious that a shortage of palatable range feed —
at least toward the end of the grazing season — with consequent
starvation will result.
On ranges on which the palatable plants, such as perennial grasses,
have been replaced largely by such low-value plants as common sage-
brush, greasewood, and rabbitbrush, grazing of approximately the
numbers formerly placed on the range now results in the livestock
subsisting almost entirely on low-value plants. Stockmen and rep-
resentatives of the Bureau of Animal Industry report increasing
losses among sheep on the winter, or so-called "desert" ranges of
western Utah, primarily from malnutrition. This is not surprising
in view of the fact that the forage value of these ranges is now
only 36 percent of that of comparable areas in good condition, as
shown by a survey of the situation made by the Forest Service in
1932.
Poor or emaciated condition of livestock frequently contributed
to losses from other causes. Animals in a weakened condition are
naturally less resistant to many diseases, there is greater danger of
loss from predatory animals, and weak cows are commonly lost in
b°ggy places. The mortality from poisonous plants is also invari-
ably heaviest when livestock are hungry or when the range is closely
grazed.
Official estimates of the Department of Agriculture record annual
death losses of 9 percent or more among grown sheep as a rather
166 THE WESTERN RANGE
common occurrence in the principal range States, even in years that
were not particularly dry. Since these estimates include losses on
farms, where the average loss is lower, there is little doubt but that
range losses are even more severe than the State averages. Further-
more, range losses are greatly reduced by supplemental feed. Under
conservative grazing and good range conditions, with adequate sup-
plemental feed for emergencies, losses are usually not in excess of 5
percent and sometimes are lower.
Losses among range cattle are also two or three times as high on
most unmanaged range areas as they are on conservatively grazed
ranges in good condition. With average annual losses of about 7
percent among cattle in the range States in many years, there can be
little question that inadequate feed from overstocking is a potent
factor.
In drought periods, especially in the Southwest, and during severe
winters on northern ranges, losses of livestock in a weakened condi-
tion from a range-feed shortage on overstocked ranges often become
appalling. From 25 to 35 percent of some herds are lost in such
so-called "die-off s." On the other hand, herds on lightly or moder-
ately stocked ranges weather such adverse conditions with losses but
little greater than their average, usually not exceeding 3 or 4 percent.
Low calf and lamb crops are but another evidence of excessive
stocking. Cows and ewes in a weakened condition from feed shortage
or other malnutrition often fail to breed during the year, and calf
and lamb crops on western ranges accordingly are lower than is
desirable. Official estimates of the Bureau of Agricultural Eco-
nomics, for example, show that in New Mexico, for the 11-year
period from 1925 to 1935, the average lamb crop amounted to only
62 percent, reflecting, at least in part, a scarcity of feed on the ranges
in most years. In 1926, following a year of fairly good rainfall and
low numbers of sheep in the State, the lamb crop amounted to 78
percent. In 1932 and 1933, with about a third again as many sheep
and following average or better years of rainfall, the lamb crops were
only 52 and 50 percent, respectively. This would indicate that there
is some relationship between low lamb crops, excessive stocking, and
poor feed.
In southern Arizona the calf crop of representative cattle outfits
using unregulated, heavily grazed ranges averaged only 55 percent 15
for the 8-year period 1916 to 1923, inclusive. Since average annual
losses amounted to more than 10 percent, net production was only 45
calves for each 100 breeding cows, inadequate for profit. This is in
contrast to an average calf crop of 72.6 percent for the same period,
on the comparable but more conservatively grazed range, in £ood
forage condition, within the Santa Rita Experimental Range. Here
losses from all causes amounted to 3.2 percent and net production was
69 calves for each 100 breeding cows, or more than half again as
many as on the depleted, overstocked range.
On heavily stocked semidesert ranges in the Southwest (50) , and
on brush ranges of southwestern Utah (53), many cows calve only
every other year. Under such conditions calves grow out poorly
and require an extra year to attain a weight comparable to calves
from better and more conservatively grazed ranges.
"United States Department of Agricculture, Forest Service. Field Day Program,
Santa Rita Range Reserve. 20 pp., illus. 1925. [Mimeographed.]
EXCESSIVE STOCKING 167
Even on good short-grass plains range of eastern Montana, lower
calf crops and poor development of calves are clear indications of
overstocking. Sixty young cows have been grazed for over 3 years
on experimental range pastures at the United States Range Livestock
Experiment Station near Miles City, Mont., under the supervision of
the Forest Service in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal In-
dustry. All ranges were in good condition at the start. Twenty of
these cows have grazed 23 acres per cow per year, and this is con-
sidered to be approximately a 25-percent overstocking. Their aver-
age calf crop for the 3-year period 1933 to 1935, inclusive, has been
70.0 percent, in contrast to 81.7 percent from the 40 cows on more
conservatively grazed pastures. Net calf production in pounds per
cow has been 194.5 pounds for the 23-acre-per-head group and 264.3
for the groups on more conservatively grazed range — a severe pen-
alty for such overstocking, even though range depletion in this in-
stance was very slight until the 1934 drought.
A slight loss in weight of the cows, such as prevailed on the over-
stocked range pastures, and even the lower calf weights, are often
not recognized by stockmen. Furthermore, on some ranges sec-
ondary species, while not as palatable, may be almost as nutritious
as the more palatable species. Accordingly, slight deterioration of
range may not be sufficiently reflected in the condition of the live-
stock for stockmen to realize the injury that overstocking is doing
to the range and through it to their own ultimate well-being.
Such increase, if any, as has occurred in meat and wool production
in the Western States has been principally due to changes in class
and age of livestock, improved breeding, increased feeding, and
other production factors, rather than because of maintenance or
improvement of range feed. During the latter part of the nineteenth
century, 4- and 5-year-old steers were commonly shipped, grass-fat,
from ranges; at present, breeding cows predominate on the range.
Calves are often sold in the fall or yearlings are marketed in spring
or fall, especially in the Southwest. In other places many steers
are held over until they are 2 or 3 years of age. During the early
years of the western sheep industry, wethers predominated on the
range. Later, as the public taste for lamb increased and as wool
prices fell, the wether herds gave way to those made up of breeding
ewes from which fat or feeder lambs are marketed. Furthermore,
there has been a marked improvement, especially in the last 20 years,
in the grade and type of animals grazed. Scrub bulls and rams
have practically disappeared from the range country, being sup-
planted largely by purebreds or very high-grade sires. Herds are
culled closely. The net result has been a greater production per
animal. Wool production per animal has about doubled in the last
50 years.
On many range areas, however, much of the advantage to be gained
from the improved breeding and other livestock management has
been lost. To develop well, the better bred animals require ade-
quate feed. In many years calves are stunted, lambs must be sold
as low-grade feeders rather than as killers, and wool production is
hampered by scant and uncertain range feed supplies. In drought
years the situation often becomes acute ; heavy starvation losses occur
in the breeding herd and well-bred breeding cows are sacrificed at
168 THE WESTERN RANGE
forced sale. Usually the unfavorable range conditions are not so
severe on sheep, although herds have been decimated by feed shortage
from drought and severe winters. Thus, years of careful breeding
may be lost in a single year because of range feed shortage from
excessive stocking and range depletion.
CAUSES or EXCESSIVE STOCKING
The causes of excessive stocking include : Competition for the use
of range lands ; the stockman's belief that profits result from maxi-
mum numbers grazed; permitting ranges to suffer in the attempt
to reduce expenses ; stocking on the basis of better years ; restocking
too soon after drought; pressure to graze maximum numbers on
public ranges; the failure of certain public agencies to face their
conservation responsibility; and finally, a lack of realization of the
consequences.
COMPETITION FOR RANGE
On unregulated public domain and the intermingled uncontrolled
private and State land, the possession of the range has been largely
dependent upon such heavy use that even though a stockman might
desire to reserve range forage for contingencies, to do so would
simply invite others to come in. Accordingly, the resident stock-
man has stocked his range excessively to keep the forage reasonably
well grazed as it grew. Since many small tracts of private- and
State-owned land are intermixed with unregulated public domain,
the unrestricted use which has prevailed on the 149 million acres of
usable range on the public domain has affected probably 150 million
acres in addition. Even with the establishing of 80 million acres
of grazing districts under the Grazing Act, doubtless more than
100 million acres of intermingled ownerships will still be open to
grazing use by all comers and will continue to be excessively stocked
until provision is made for its management.
STOCKMEN BELIEVE PROFITS DEPEND ON NUMBERS
Stockmen primarily concerned with making ends meet or in mak-
ing a profit, to which they are justly entitled, generally believe, even
in the face of periodic financial difficulties, that the greatest financial
return results from grazing the maximum number of livestock on
the range. When high prices prevail they sometimes hold surplus
breeding stock on already crowded ranges in an effort to increase
production. On the other hand, when prices are low they often
attempt to carry over salable animals for a higher market, with
inevitable overstocking of the range. Loans usually have been negoti-
ated on livestock numbers almost regardless of costs, ability of the
range to support the number grazed, or net production. In some
instances loaning agencies have unwittingly encouraged overstocking
when prices have declined by requesting stockmen to retain young
salable breeding stock in order to reduce the per head value of the
loan. By so doing they have overstocked and often undermined the
range forage resource which, in the last analysis, supports the loan.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING 169
PERMITTING RANGES TO SUFFER TO REDUCE EXPENSES
Ranges are permitted to suffer in the attempt to reduce expenses.
The relatively high cost of supplemental feed, especially on areas
where it is not abundant, leads to turning livestock on ranges before
forage plants have attained sufficient growth to prevent injury. Sim-
ilarly it leads owners to leave stock on the range so late in the fall
and winter that trampling may do severe damage to saturated soil.
Such practices are common throughout the West. In Utah and Idaho
they have seriously impaired the grazing value of millions of acres
of spring-fall range.
STOCKING ON BASIS OF BETTER TEARS
In years of good rainfall and favorable climate, the forage on the
range makes a good growth and livestock do well as long as abundant
feed lasts. This naturally encourages users to make the most of the
available feed and inevitably leads to excessive stocking when forage
production drops in dry years. In view of the deterioration which
such heavy stocking in dry years brings about, as has already been
discussed in connection with the effects of climatic variations, it
would seem that the fallacy of stocking ranges on the basis of feed
production in good years would be evident and that definite provi-
sion would be made for leaving a substantial margin of range feed
in the average or better year. Still, many users stock on the basis of
the better years, hope for rain, and, when the range deteriorates
from overstocking and average rainfall consequently fails to produce
the forage they expect, believe they are in a drought period.
RESTOCKING TOO SOON AFTER DROUGHT
Climatic changes have a way of playing tricks with the vegetation
that are sometimes deceptive. As pointed out in the discussion of
climate, the stand of perennial grasses is less dense in the year fol-
lowing a drought than during the drought year itself. When un-
usually favorable rainfall follows a drought year, as is sometimes
the case, the reduced stand of vegetation makes an exceptional height
growth and appears to be abundant. This often leads to prompt
restocking. Too many livestock at that time may so closely utilize
the forage as to seriously affect recovery from the drought.
PRESSURE ON PUBLIC RANGE OFFICIALS
On publicly regulated range such as on the national forests, many
permittees exert constant pressure to be allowed larger numbers than
they are now permitted. Some challenge reductions necessary to
control overgrazing, even when they realize that the ranges are suf-
fering from overuse. The hope always exists that climatic condi-
tions will bring better feed the following year. This desire to pre-
vent reduction in livestock numbers regardless of overstocking has
even crept into the provisions of the Grazing Act.
170 THE WESTERN RANGE
SOME AGENCIES HAVE NOT FACED THEIR CONSERVATION RESPONSIBILITY
Grazing leases of State lands and on certain Federal reservations
have been made without adequate thought for perpetuation of the
resource. Ordinarily, there has been lack of knowledge of actual
conditions on the range and either inadequate or complete absence
of inspection of actual use and management of the lands adminis-
tered. The net result has generally been the grazing of more live-
stock than the range could support on a sustained basis.
Many leases of such lands provide for the continued grazing of
the number then grazing on the range or for the average number
which have grazed over a period of years. Such stocking is often
spoken of as grazing capacity, and is sometimes used without field
check of range conditions as a basis for proposed adjustments. If
range forage has been adequately maintained, average numbers
grazed furnish an excellent criterion. If, however, through over-
stocking, the value of the range has greatly declined, there can be
no assurance that the range will continue to carry the number pre-
viously grazed. In fact, continued grazing of the same number
will simply accentuate the degree of overstocking and intensify
range deterioration. Often under such conditions a drastic reduc-
tion in livestock of one-fourth, one-half, or even three-fourths may
be necessary to check further deterioration and start recovery.
LACK OF REALIZATION OF CONSEQUENCES
Stockmen are apt to overestimate the grazing capacity of their
owned, leased, or publicly controlled land because of lack of know-
ledge of what the range will support on a sustained basis or be-
cause of a failure to take into consideration all of the factors in-
volved. There is a lack of adequate knowledge of just what grazing
capacity is and of simple measures to determine it. This is a fertile
field for research.
The public also fails, generally, to recognize the serious conse-
quences of overstocking to the livestock industry and to community
welfare, or to take prompt action after recognition. Here in the
United States the whole social system has been built upon individual
initiative and action, a vital factor in development but an encourage-
ment to destructive exploitation. For years the unreserved public
domain has been a grazing common. Now and then the injured
public, on their own volition, took action to correct some particu-
larly bad situation, such as the closing of the Manti Canyon water-
shed to sheep grazing about 1900 after disastrous floods had caused
great damage in the town of Manti (108). The establishment of the
national forests came in an effort to protect forests and mountain
watersheds in the public interest. Many additions of range lands
have also been made to national forests at the request of users or the
interested public to protect more adequately the resource values for
community benefit. However, even though conditions on the majority
of range lands have continued to affect community welfare seriously,
the interested public has hesitated to take action.
EXCESSIVE STOCKING 171
OVERCOMING EXCESSIVE STOCKING NOT INSURMOUNTABLE
With several hundred million acres excessively stocked and seri-
ously depleted, the stemming of potential range destruction may
seem like a hopeless task. Although the situation was rather critical
in 1934, during that year the drought, depressed prices, and purchases
by the Federal Government of drought-stricken livestock greatly
reduced livestock population. However, numbers of livestock in-
creased during 1935 on many ranges. True, shipments from ranges
and starvation losses have been so large that conservative increases
can be made in limited localities within the next few years after
the ranges recover from their present impaired productivity. In
most cases, however, the break-down of ranges from past overstock-
ing and the recent drought is so great that livestock on range lands
still exceed the grazing capacity by approximately 62 percent and
will have to be reduced by 38 percent in order to overcome the over-
stocking. Ways and means of developing an understanding of the
proper basis for stocking to sustain production of forage and live-
stock, a willingness on the part of users to adjust stocking to safe-
guard against impairing production, and regulation of public ranges
which will protect them against abuse are features which will need
consideration in order to overcome excessive stocking now prevailing.
RULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT
By M. W. TALBOT, Senior Forest Ecologist, California Forest and Kange
Experiment Station
As the frontier retreated westward into a land of no fences and
few familiar kinds of forage, the wide expanses of inviting range
brought both rich opportunities and a host of knotty problems. As
great numbers of cows and sheep pressed upon the heels of the van-
ishing buffalo and swarmed over the free-grass country, a unique
brand of thought and attitude evolved. This western range philos-
ophy was quite logically the outcome of the challenge of a strange
environment to the sturdy pioneer stockman and of his attempts to
adapt his growing needs to the strange conditions.
The early stockman had to develop a whole new system of range
husbandry. In the absence of adequate experience or research facts,
management of the grazing resource developed largely — and quite
naturally — from a basis of rule-of-thumb. Thus the term implies
all the sundry kinds of range practices that had their beginning in
the stern necessities of pioneer times and that, in varying degree, still
persist. Many of these practices, backed by excellent judgment, have
stood the test of years. Noteworthy are riding, roping, branding,
etc. — the whole technique of handling livestock, in which high pro-
ficiency has been attained.
Many other practices, however, have led to range depletion and
consequently have proved to be unsound from the standpoint of per-
petuation of the range resource and its other public values. For
these practices the stockman must share the blame. Still, in exam-
ining them for clues to their correction, one must recognize that the
stockman has been in the grip of powerful economic forces to a
varying but considerable degree. It was inevitable that many indi-
viduals confronted with the problem of making a living would be
led into range practices that are, in the end, damaging to the land.
Just how, then, have these defective practices operated?
HARMFUL PRACTICES EVOLVED BY RULE-OF-THUMB
TOO MANY ANIMALS ON THE RANGE
Most range deterioration can be traced back to the attempt to
graze more animals than the land can safely support from year to
year. Drought, lack of knowledge of what the range will stand,
the urge for greatest immediate profit, economic pressures, and other
contributing factors have all played a part. But most of these have
been expressed in terms of overstocking, which still looms as the
most spectacularly destructive of rule-of-thumb practices. Because
of its high importance as a major factor in depletion, the preceding
section of this report has been devoted to a detailed discussion of its
widespread occurrence, its various causes, and its destructive effects.
173
174 THE WESTERN RANGE
FAULTY DISTRIBUTION OF LIVESTOCK
Uniform grazing over all parts of the average western range unit
is rarely obtainable because of variations in topography, timber or
brush cover, kind of forage, location of watering places, and similar
differences. Certain parts of a range are thus grazed more heavily
than others; these are the critical spots or tension zones in which
range damage has been most pronounced.
CONGESTION OF LIVESTOCK IN VALLEYS
Crowding of choice range is partially explained by the fact that
most western ranges produce "pie" or "ice cream" forage, as well as
"hardtack." Livestock prefer the lush forage of mountain meadows,
for example, to the drier bunchgrass on surrounding timbered or
brushy slopes. Moreover, cattle tend to drift to the more accessible,
comparatively open, and usually better watered meadows, neglecting
the outlying feed; and sheep are more easily herded in the open
areas. Allotting livestock to ranges on the basis of the forage crop
on their total acreage has thus quite obviously meant excessive num-
bers of animals on the comparatively small meadows, canyon bot-
toms, and other areas of choice feed. The inevitable results, over-
grazing, reduced forage crop, increased erosion, and impaired water-
shed value, can be illustrated by two examples.
A spectacular illustration is the Canada de los Alamos, a privately
owned meadow in the Santa Barbara National Forest, Calif. In
1880 a horse could step across the tiny creek meandering through
this valley. Depletion of the vegetation carpet through continual
overgrazing, combined with occasional rainstorms of great intensity,
have brought about a striking change of scene — a great "barranca"
(gully) 100 feet deep, 200 feet wide, and several miles long; an aban-
doned ranch house menaced by the encroaching arroyo ; and perma-
nent depletion of range values through lessened valley-floor water
and volume of forage.
An historic stage-stop on one of the early emigrant routes fur-
nishes an even more convincing example of range destruction.
Mountain Meadows, Utah, at the time of first settlement in 1862 was
a fertile sod-bound valley of several thousand acres. A recent sur-
vey by the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station re-
veals a striking contrast — as a result of man's occupancy, with his
roads, ditches, and hungry herds, practically all of the deep-soil por-
tion of the meadow has been worn and washed away, along with
most of its original grazing capacity.
As the originally intact plant cover gave way on these and many
other overgrazed areas, the most palatable forage plants disappeared
and in their place inferior or worthless plants came in and grazing
and watershed values dropped (fig. 58) .
Equally serious is the "cracking under the strain" of small and
inconspicuous mountain meadows ranging upward in size from 5
acres or less. Many of these in their primeval state were charac-
terized by rivulets bordered by willows and grassy glades. Here, as
in the big valleys, overgrazing was followed by thinning of sod,
killing out of the willows, cutting of gullies, lowering of the water
table, and drying of soil.
RULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT
175
In appraising the significance of similar examples, which abound
throughout the West, one who has reviewed the imposing array of
evidence, locality by locality, states the conviction that serious range
erosion in the Southwest followed close on the heels of excessive
grazing by big herds on key areas (##). "The coincidence between
the introduction of large numbers of stock and the cutting of ar-
royos indicates that overgrazing precipitated this form of destruc-
tive erosion" ($3). And, in both the intermountain and southwest-
ern regions, depletion and modification of plant cover incident to and
following settlement and livestock ranching may be regarded as a
probable cause of much subsequent erosion of valleys and mountain
meadows, according to various geologists as well as foresters and
FIGURE 58.— GOOD RANGE PLANTS GO OUT WITH OVERGRAZING
Long-continued overstocking of the valley range on the right has resulted in the disap-
pearance of the valuable saltbrush still abundant on the protected range across the
fence, a thinning of sod, and an increase in small worthless shrubs. The net result
is greatly reduced grazing capacity.
range technicians (10, 51, 62). The net result of overgrazing caused
by poor distribution of stock has been the same, in varying degree,
on thousands of valleys and mountain meadows throughout the West.
EXCESSIVE USE OF SHEEP BED GROUNDS. AND CLOSE HEEDING
Prohibited on the national-forest grazing grounds and the more
closely supervised privately owned ranges, excessive use of sheep
bed grounds and camps is still prevalent on unregulated portions
of the public domain and on many private ranges, more particu-
larly those of absentee owners, in spite of the fact that its evils have
been quite apparent for over a third of a century (38, 1^8). The usual
explanation is that the herding of sheep is somewhat easier from
semipermanent camps, the use of which reduces the inconvenience
of moving camp every 3 days, or oftener. Too frequently, there-
fore, the tendency has been to use the same camp for many nights
176 THE WESTERN RANGE
in succession, trailing the bands of sheep back and forth between
the overused bed ground (adjacent to camp) and the outlying feed.
In consequence, before the camp is finally moved, the bed ground and
a needlessly large surrounding area has been severely trampled and
grazed — in extreme cases even partially denuded, with the result-
ant loss not only of grazing capacity but also of much valuable
topsoil from areas "grazed into the ground" year after year.
Much range damage also has been caused by closely massed herds
of hurried jostling animals forced to graze in crowded compact
bunches. With close herding feed is wasted through unavoidable
trampling, and strain is increased on key portions of the range
which usually are most in need of protection. To this extent close
herding leads to the same evils as prolonged use of bed grounds.
Furthermore, unnecessary trailing by either sheep or cattle has
caused great wear and tear on the soil-binding plant cover of swales
and valleys. In little paths or trails the grass wears through to the
soil. Down the deepening trails the water "first crept, then ran, and
finally tore * * *" until great washes were formed — the gullies
and arroyos which have seamed and scarred the western ranges in
every direction.
INADEQUATE OR POORLY LOCATED WATERING PLACES
An insufficiency of stock waters, a condition found on much of
the semiarid western grazing grounds (13), leads to excessive tram-
pling about the water and increased trailing between water and feed
(139). The destructive effect on the range is illustrated by condi-
tions around a well in Millard County, Utah, on winter range where
watering places were too far apart. Excessive numbers of sheep
had been watered here for 8 years. Within a radius of 1,000 feet
only 4.3 percent as much grass remains as on similar range 15,000 feet
distant. Even within a 2,000- foot radius the forage has been reduced
to about one-sixth of that on the more distant range, and the highly
palatable plants have been obliterated.
As a result of depletion in its various aspects not only has the
plant cover around this watering place been made much thinner
and the soil exposed to wind and water erosion, but the vigorous
invasion of low-quality forage plants on the desert subjects the
valuable plants to such severe competition for moisture as to render
the establishment of young plants difficult in the last extreme.
Without reasonable reproduction it is only a matter of a few years
until the best forage in this type becomes practically extinct (136).
POOR SALTING PRACTICES
The pounding of overgrazed spots is aggravated by obsolete salt-
ing practices, because salting only at the watering places, or in
other places where stock are likely to "bunch up", nullifies any pos-
sibility of attracting cattle into areas of unused or lightly used
forage. Experimental work, careful observations, and studies of
existing practices of progressive stockmen on national forests and
many private ranges have pointed out that salt is a "cheap cowboy."
Systematic salting can be used to lessen undue bunching and over-
grazing on areas where the animals tend to congregate (32, 39, 79) .
RULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT 177
To the degree to which no advantage has been taken of this pro-
gressive handling measure for effecting proper distribution of stock,
inadequate salting practices have contributed their share to range
depletion.
IMPROPER SEASON OF USE INJURES THE RANGE
Too early spring grazing on mountain ranges, another cause of
local rang© depreciation, is an outgrowth of the insufficiency of
spring range adjoining mountain communities, such as the Spanish-
American settlements clustered around the base of the Sangre de
Christo Mountains of northern New Mexico, and many others. In
the early spring the stockmen, confronted with exhaustion of winter
forage, with a limited ability to obtain more supplemental feed,
and often the necessity to move stock off the home ranch stubble-
fields and meadows in time for plowing and irrigating, have been
insistent on turning stock into the high mountain areas as soon as
the first green grass appeared in the wake of the receding snow
banks. How to bridge this gap in the feed supply still remains an
exceedingly difficult problem shared by national-forest adminis-
trators and by hundreds of stockmen throughout the West. Illus-
trative of this difficulty is the fact that proper seasonal use still
needs to be brought about on approximately 12 percent of the 9,000
grazing units on national-forest ranges.
To the individual operator, the risk of range injury, if considered
at all, usually has been regarded as outweighed by the economic
necessity. That early spring injury has been occurring for years
on years, however, is shown among others by results of studies in
Utah (116), in Colorado (65), and in North Dakota (119), as well
as by much general observation elsewhere through the West. When
cattle are allowed to "follow the snow" and forage is cropped "as
soon as it pokes its nose out of the ground" no plant factory is left
to manufacture food to replace that gradually sapped from the
scant supplies still stored in the roots in spring. Further injury to
both plants and range results from trampling of saturated soils.
It is of especial interest to note that the detrimental effects of
summer invasions of Montana winter range by herds and flocks —
another example of improper season of use — was referred to, as
early as 1900, as "the denuding summer pasturing" (Ifl).
Risk of damage to range and loss of condition of animals also is
usually incurred in any attempt to graze short-season ranges for a
longer period. For example, on certain California foothills, chiefly
valuable for fall, winter, and spring grazing, the short-lived annual
forage dries to a crisp in May, and during the long practically rain-
less summer provides an unsatisfactory ration deficient in vitamin A
(68), and certain minerals, particularly calcium and phosphorous —
a deficiency usually associated also with low protein (67). If such
ranges are grazed yearlong not only is it usually necessary to sup-
plement them to prevent serious loss in animal condition; but, in
addition, little or no old grass remains on the "slicked-off slopes"
at the beginning of the fall rains, to retard erosion.
Full-season use of the browse ranges of southwestern Utah — areas
better adapted to late spring and fall grazing — is followed by a
64946—36 13
178 THE WESTERN KANGE
gradually diminishing stand of the most palatable bushes (53) —
another illustration of grazing at the wrong time of year.
The time of grazing has much to do with livestock damage to
timber on the Coconino Plateau of Northern Arizona, according
to studies of the Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment Sta-
tion. Most of the grazing injury from browsing of terminal shoots
of ponderosa pine "reproduction"16 occurs when the proportion of
succulent forage is smallest. This condition exists each year during
two dry seasons, the first from the opening of the grazing period
about June 1 to the beginning of the summer rains in early July,
and the second and shorter period extending from about the first
of October to the end of the grazing season. Lack of proper consid-
eration of the amount of succulent forage available during these
critical dry periods has been the principal cause of damage to the
regenerating forest. This appears to be even a more important
cause than shortage or poor distribution of water.
POOR BALANCE BETWEEN CLASSES OF ANIMALS AND TYPE OF RANGE
Local failure to allocate ranges to the class of stock to which they
are best suited reacts unfavorably on both stock and range. Illustra-
tions of such maladjustments, as they affect ranges, include (1) plac-
ing cattle on ranges so rocky and rugged that animals become foot-
sore, calf crops are reduced, and the most accessible areas are
overgrazed (79) ; and (2) vainly attempting to get full utilization
with cattle of ranges supplied with sufficient water for sheep but
not enough for cattle.
Sheep, for example, require water less frequently than cattle17
(75), and consequently can travel farther between feed and water.
From the standpoint of forage alone, full stocking of such areas
with cattle is inevitably reflected in enlargement of the trampled-
out areas around water, increased soil washing, and reduced grazing
capacity — the same chain of destructive results discussed in detail in
foregoing paragraphs.
Placing both cattle and sheep on the same range usually is equiva-
lent to double use, with its attendant evils. The principle of this
so-called "common use" originated from the belief that full utiliza-
tion of all the forage (maximum grazing capacity) could best be
attained by grazing on the same range two or more classes of live-
stock in numbers corresponding to the quantity of forage that could
be used by each class. On numerous ranges where all conditions
have been favorable, common use has worked (79). In too many
instances in actual practice the attempt at common use has cul-
minated in double use and in overgrazing in varying degree. To
just that degree the practice, as it concerns domestic livestock, has
proved injurious.
Dual use by domestic livestock and game likewise requires planned
regulation to avoid detrimental overuse. In general, there is ample
summer range on western forests for present numbers of game ani-
mals, and in most cases for increases, without conflict with domestic
livestock (15 h pp. 527-554). A general deficiency exists, however,
16 Small trees between the seedling and sapling stages.
17 United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Report of the District
Investigate Committee, District 3. 134 pp. 1930. [Mimeographed.]
RULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT 179
in winter range, which includes several million acres of public
domain, a large but unknown acreage of privately owned wild land,
and the lower fringes of national forests, national parks, and State
parks. Much of this winter range for deer, elk, and antelope is
badly overgrazed (14$) , the results being similar to those caused by
livestock alone. The spectacular examples that have aroused
national interest and concern, illustrate the problems.
The deer herd on the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona increased
so rapidly with complete protection that within 5 years after the
peak had been reached about 1924 18, and despite a heavy reduction
in livestock, the productive capacity of much of the winter range
had dwindled to 5 or 10 percent of the normal forage supply (15^
pp. 489^525).
The second example concerns the Sun River elk herd on the
Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, which reached an
estimated total of 4,600 in 1930, with available winter range badly
overgrazed. Severe winters, hunting, and other causes have re-
duced the total to about 3,000 head; but, in spite of a reduction of
78 percent of the domestic livestock on the area, further adjustments
must still be made to halt the damage.
THE EFFECT OF BURNING ON FORAGE PRODUCTION
Any painstaking analysis of the vexing problem of burning and
forage production on the so-called "brush ranges" of the West re-
veals two major causes: (1) Local confusion and even misunder-
standing because of lack of accepted facts on critical phases of the
problem; and (2) the occasional inevitable clash of two schools of
thought. One group includes some stockmen and others who are
faced with the problems of making a living off the range land and
have only a mild or secondary interest and concern in its public
values. Perpetuation of the basic resources, however, is the obliga-
tion of other groups. Quite sincere differences of individual and
group opinion are thus involved.
Whether to burn chamise and chaparral lands in California, for
example, is a question that has received much general empirical
study and observation, supplemented on certain points by detailed
studies, chiefly by A. W. Sampson, of the University of California.
As temporary advantages of burning "brush" lands, the findings
of these studies include, among others, a usual increase in volume
of forage and a longer period of succulence for the first year and
to a lesser extent during the second year after the fire. Proponents
of burning consequently minimize the disadvantages, taking the
position that the increase in forage more than compensates for any
injury to the range resource.
As an offsetting detrimental finding, however, the increased
amount of forage on "burns" is not only very temporary but it is
usually obtained through the barter of fertile soil ; for soil erosion
is increased by burning on the steeper, rougher areas. For these
reasons, conservation groups and administrators charged with main-
taining productivity of these lands, most of which are included in
18 Mann, W. G., and Locke, S. B. The Kaibab Deer, a Brief History and Recent
Developments. U. S. Dept. Agr. 67 pp., illus. 1931. [Mimeographed.]
180 THE WESTERN RANGE
important watersheds, hold the view that on most areas serious in-
jury to the range soil, to the watersheds, and to other public and
long-time values outweighs the temporary value of the increased
forage.
With reference to sagebrush ranges, observations by Pickford
(104) in the Intermountain Region, indicated that promiscuous
burning followed by unregulated grazing tends to deplete the stand
of perennial grasses and to allow inferior annual grasses to increase
in abundance.
The further point should be made clear that many stockmen
apply the term "brush range" not only to the chaparral-covered
foothills or to sagebrush plains, but also to ranges in the ponderosa
pine type in which young timber has crowded out livestock forage
in varying degree. In order to hold and increase the area available
for grazing, stockmen occasionally have favored burning of such
commercial timberlands. The damage resulting from such a prac-
tice is great.
In mature timber not only is there a large direct loss in volume
but subsequent loss results from decreased growth and from fungous
and insect damage (129). A more serious result from the burning
of cut-over lands is the progressive destruction of both small and
established tree seedlings and the "taking over" of large areas by
dense stands of worthless brush. For example, of 13.6 million acres
comprising the largest part of the California pine region, 1.9 million
acres of potential timber land are now brush fields resulting from
fires (128).
And of even more far-reaching importance is the fact that re-
peated burning of mountain timberlands enormously increases ero-
sion of the fertile topsoil, a fact demonstrated by the California
Forest and Range Experiment Station and other agencies. As an
illustration, based on actual measurements from experimental plots in
one locality, run-off from bare burned soil was shown to be 3 to 30
times greater than that from adjacent forest-covered soil; and the
erosion 100 to 1,000 times greater, the higher rates coinciding with
higher intensities of rainfall.
COMBINED EFFECTS OF UNSOUND RULE-OF-THUMB PRACTICES
The foregoing factors in depletion resulting from rule-of-thumb
management have brought about sadly reduced forage values in all
parts of the West. Fully half of the western range area, according
to recent estimates, is now characterized by severe or extreme deple-
tion as given in detail on page 114 and summarized in figure 59. For
example, on open desert ranges in Nevada forage attains only 49
percent of its former value; in Utah, 36 percent; and in the Red
Desert of Wyoming, 43 percent of that in the remnants of protected
range that are still left, as shown by surveys made by the Inter-
mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. Moreover, even
the protected fragments are thought to be less productive than was
the virgin range. This depletion is recognized by resident stockmen
who have operated 20 to 50 years on one or the other of these three
range units. The older range users have estimated reductions of
20 to 80 percent from the original condition, the amount of their
estimated reductions corresponding in general to the time they have
EULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT
181
used the range. The story is similar in various other types of west-
ern range.
Such heavy reductions in forage values constitute a heavy blow
to the grazing industry, because the salt-desert-shrub type is the
principal winter range over extensive areas in the intermountain
region. Even in their depleted condition, these desert ranges sup-
port nearly 2 million sheep from 4 to 6 winter months in Utah ; more
than a million use them for 3 to 5 months in central Nevada; and
probably 2 million use them for 3 to 5 months in Wyoming and
Colorado.
How much of the present alarming condition may fairly be
charged to the rule-of -thumb basis of attempted management, and
how much to drought and other causes? Adverse climate has peri-
DEPLETION
CLASS
AREA IN EACH CLASS
Moderate
(0-25 %)
Material
(26-50 ^o)
Severe
(51 - 75 <7o)
Extreme
(76 + <7o)
1
y//////////////^^^^
imm
-
0 10 20 30 40 5C
PERCENT
FIGURE 59. — REDUCED GRAZING CAPACITY OF WESTERN RANGE
Less than one-seventh Is still in comparatively satisfactory condition, and this portion is
more than outweighed by the area on which most of the values have been lost.
odically been a potent contributing factor in the temporary depre-
ciation of many range areas; for, as earlier explained, climatic fluc-
tuations affect in pronounced degree both range forage and pro-
ductivity. Drought reflected in a reduced forage crop quickly con-
verts what is normally a proper stocking into excessive stocking, and
intensifies the damage to ranges already too heavily stocked. But
this depletion due to drought alone is only temporary, as explained
in a foregoing section ; for drought-stricken ranges recover following
the return of favorable growing conditions — unless the drought is
accompanied (as in recent years it almost invariably has been) by
excessive stocking or other bad practices. So, in the long run, it is
these rule-of-thumb practices — not climate — which cause ranges to
break down.
This conclusion is further strengthened by the especially signifi-
cant fact that range depletion is rather closely tied in with the class
182 THE WESTEKN KANGE
of land ownership, range deterioration being generally greatest on
unregulated, publicly owned lands as well as on the majority of
those privately owned ; and least on publicly owned areas under reg-
ulation and on the notable exceptions of well-managed private hold-
ings. This is not surprising for, as explained later on in this
chapter, financial difficulties brought about by overcapitalization,
onerous credit facilities, and unstable and fluctuating markets have
contributed in no small way to poor husbandry, range exploitation,
and the inevitable consequence — range depletion, on free public range
and most privately owned range.
Most depletion, then, results directly from overgrazing, which in
turn has its origin in defective range -management practices as just
explained. The exact amount of depletion properly attributable to
these rule-of -thumb practices cannot of course be accurately weighed,
but the contrast between the most depleted classes of land and those
least depleted affords a rough approximation of the net contribu-
tion of rule-of -thumb practices to range deterioration.
REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF RULE-OF-THUMB PRACTICES
The evil effects on western ranges from all injurious forces com-
bined, have just been outlined. In considering even briefly the wide-
spread damage one naturally wonders : "Why did it all come about?"
Back of this question lie explanations of peculiar interest in them-
selves, reflecting as they do certain pioneer pages of western history
that have passed. Of more immediate importance, however, is the
help that the underlying reasons offer in planning how to recapture
the disappearing values. Why, then, have many stockmen continued
practices that tend to wreck the basis of the industry on which they
are dependent?
During the early pioneer years at least, it is doubtful whether
any appreciable concern was felt regarding the possibility of dam-
aging the range. Later, as competition for forage tightened, along
with the conflicts between sheep and cattle and between stockmen
and "nesters", the dominant effort of most stockmen to gain or
retain control of the range overshadowed any thought of resultant
damage, and led even at times to the malicious "trampling into dust"
of areas of feed, to drive back crowding neighbors, or in retaliation.
No responsibility was felt for preserving the ranges for the future.
As Barnes (14) points out, it was all free, open grazing; Uncle
Sam owned it, and "it was a clear case of first come first served
and the devil take the hindmost" — virtually the motto of that period.
And, permeating each and every chapter of the story of the range —
even to the present — maximum immediate profit rather than main-
tained range productivity usually has been the accepted individual
aim. Proper management may also be hindered by local conditions.
For example, stockmen using the unregulated public domain, are
still to a considerable degree, forced deliberately to overgraze the
range in order to discourage competition.
Moreover, vastness of open range and abundance of forage at
time of first settlement discounted any need for concern. Perhaps,
however, in the words of Barnes :
The stockmen of those pioneer days should not be held to too strict an
accountability for their range practices. It was all a new proposition to them.
KULE-OF-THUMB MANAGEMENT
183
Few of them knew the first rudiments of forage growth or plant requirements.
They mostly grew up with the pioneer idea that when the feed in a certain
region was gone there was more "over the range" to which they could move
their herds and flocks.
In a surprisingly large number of instances stockmen did not real-
ize the wide differences in range-plant palatability — a vital founda-
tion stone of safe grazing capacity. When all the choice range had
been taken up and overstocking and other rule-of -thumb practices,
together with drought, began to take their combined toll, range
depletion continued without any general realization on the part of
stockmen that the range could not withstand the severe treatment
indefinitely. Most of them failed to take into account the penalty
of guessing at grazing capacity and the forage-crop ups and downs
resulting from climatic fluctuations.
The delicate balance between climate and vegetation was com-
pletely unknown to stockmen and the interested public, and both
were lulled into a false sense of resource security. Therefore, when
unexpected drought set the stage for range break-down, the attend-
ant livestock losses were bemoaned, but complacent faith was, and
still is pinned to perhaps the greatest fallacy in range land — the
far-too-prevalent belief that "one good rainy year will bring the
ranges back." Studies to date indicate precisely the contrary result
in many western range types where the important forage plants are
dependent upon seed for their perpetuation. A convincing illus-
tration of the slow recovery of bunchgrass types is furnished by
Forest Service records from 1912 to 1935 from 50 quadrats on Ari-
zona pine ranges that were overgrazed when established. None of
these regained maximum forage density in 12 years under fence and
four-fifths of them had not entirely recovered after 21 years of
protection.
Then, too, much range damage in its early and often obscure
stages occurred undetected, because the average stockman, in most
ways a keen observer, was not looking for it. Moreover, in many
places the first danger signs, such as incipient erosion and a slight
increase in inferior range weeds, were not always reflected imme-
diately in livestock condition. Finally, there was a lack of deple-
tion "yardsticks" — criteria by which the significance of these first
changes could be understood.
Locally, observant stockmen, of course, did realize the full import
of these changes — and r long time ago. The secretary of the Cali-
fornia Wool Growers' Association, for example, in writing in 1863
of conditions in that State (101) alluded to sheep ranges:
Where the lands have been so persistently overstocked [that] the herbage
has necessarily become thinner and thinner * * *. This process of depas-
turage, though not confined to any one species of herbage, is most strikingly
exhibited in the great oat ranges. * * * This system of stocking the graz-
ing lands must ultimately result in their entire depasturage. * * *
Thus a note of alarm regarding overstocking and range decline in
one region, the Pacific coast, was sounded from within the livestock
industry itself nearly three-quarters of a century ago.
Even when recognized, damage has frequently been tolerated by
private owners because of economic pressure, including such policies
as the deliberate holding over of excess numbers of animals for
another year because of poor markets; taking a chance on a little
184 THE WESTERN RANGE
range damage in order to save money on costly feed; and pushing
herds onto mountain ranges too early in the spring before the range
was ready for grazing. Locally, many national-forest range areas
likewise have suffered through attempts to relieve temporarily the
strain on the local stockmen and local communities, in response to
strong pressure during emergency periods of feed scarcity ; and from
the added strain of increasing livestock in an effort to increase meat
production in 1918.
Finally, in a review of the reasons underlying past range practices,
one must keep in mind that the pioneer stockman was forced to
improvise untried rules. Previous husbandry — developed in eastern
agriculture on comparatively small areas, with more uniform forage
types, and more gentle stock under fenced control — fell flat when it-
came to handling sheep in bands as large as 3,000 head (98) ; tens
of thousands of cattle in single ownership, and in at least one
instance the almost incredible total of 150,000 head (US). Both
classes of stock had to be handled over ranges extending from the
smooth to the inaccessibly rough and from sea level to elevations
above 12,000 feet, characterized by wide extremes of climate, and
supporting hundreds of strange forage plants. New complex situa-
tions had to be met, and promptly. Rule-of -thumb methods quite
naturally were resorted to by stockmen, and to some extent have been
retained by public-land administrators in the absence of sufficient
proved facts.
Even had more tested experimental results been available, a lag in
their application was perhaps inevitable, especially on the part of
the pioneer who, in the main, was the sturdy confident type that
pushed back frontiers. One must keep in mind that the isolation,
uncertainties, and emergencies of those times fostered reliance on
independent judgment by early ranchmen, naturally a highly inde-
pendent class who preferred opinion or practical experience to
outside counsel regarding the conduct of their business. Conse-
quently, within the industry itself there has not been any general
appreciation of the value of tested information in meeting the
changing western conditions. From this viewpoint the grazing
industry stands in sharp contrast to farming with its sustained
emphasis on research as a highly useful adjunct to practical manage-
ment. Thus the lag in range research also may be regarded as one
of the major reasons for the long-continued use of many rule-of-
thumb practices. Because of its importance it is discussed in a sepa-
rate section of this report.
THE LAG IN RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
By M. W. TALBOT, Senior Forest Ecologist, California Forest and Range Experi-
ment Station, and E. C. CRAFTS, Assistant Forest Ecologist, Southwestern
Forest and Range Experiment Station
Management of western ranges with their intricate and variable
pattern of conditions and their interlocking private and public values
is not an easy job. Livestock forage is not their only crop. They
possess, in addition, important watershed, wildlife, recreational, and
timber values. To keep pace with rapidly changing conditions
western range management already requires, in addition to the con-
tribution of sound practical experience, much detailed knowledge
not yet available. Yet, as previously pointed out, interest in basic
fact finding has lagged far more on range problems than, for in-
stance, on farming problems. As the men charged with range ad-
ministration began building up the system of regulated grazing on
public range lands, the incentive for digging out new needed facts
had to come chiefly from land-managing conservation groups. Con-
sequently, the realization of the need for range research has devel-
oped slowly.
APPRAISAL OF RANGE RESEARCH AND EXTENSION 19
Research on problems concerned with rrnge land use thus far un-
dertaken in the United States may be appraised by discussing briefly
duration of the work, character of investigations and agencies en-
gaged, expenditures, number of workers, and application of results
in range extension.
DURATION OF WORK
The United States was one of the first countries to undertake re-
search on range-land problems. Investigations by Federal and State
agencies began about 1900, 'and by 1910 eight State agricultural ex-
periment stations had each pioneered one or two projects. In 1907
the Forest Service initiated range investigations in connection with
administration of the national forests and in 1910 established the
Office of Grazing Studies. Twenty-five years earlier, however, when
the great cattle boom of the eighties was at its zenith there was an
acute but unrecognized need for research results. Had the facts been
known then concerning grazing capacity, seasonal use, and the eco-
nomic consequences of range abuse, much of the disastrous deple-
tion that began with the boom period and grew with succeeding ex-
pansion, might have been avoided. Research started about a quarter
of a century too late, and has never been on a scale commensurate
with requirements.
19 In preparing this section, reference was made to publications and unpublished records
of the Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service, the Office of Experiment Stations,
the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Bureau of Plant Industry,
the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and the Western States Extension Conferences.
185
186 THE WESTERN RANGE
CHARACTER OF INVESTIGATIONS
The Forest Service, charged with departmental responsibility for
research on timbered and nontimbered ranges both within and with-
out the national forests, is the only agency that has developed a
comprehensive range-wide investigative program. Its work centers
on the range resource itself and is only incidentally concerned with
the handling of livestock. Emphasis has been on the determination
of the principal forage plants, their growth habits and forage value,
on range management, including natural revegetation and principles
of grazing use, and on the relation of range use to watershed protec-
tion. Some progress has also been made on the effects of grazing
on forest reproduction, and on plant succession — how vegetation is
affected by grazing, drought, and other influences.
Forest Service range research is now confined to a limited number
of the important classes of range in five major regions in the West.
It is urgently needed, and should be extended to all the principal
classes and to the Pacific Northwest.
Eight other Federal agencies, six in the Department of Agri-
culture, either have cooperated with the Forest Service or have
worked independently on the range problems within their jurisdic-
tion. For example, the Bureau of Plant Industry in the early days
investigated certain phases of range revegetation, and more recently
has devoted increasing attention to pasture problems, development
of forage crops, and plant breeding. The Bureau of Animal In-
dustry has studied animal husbandry and poisonous plants; the
Bureau of Agricultural Economics, cost of production, ranch organ-
ization, and other range-land problems. The Biological Survey has
studied wildlife; the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine,
insect problems; and the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, plant
analyses and soil problems relating to range lands. The Bureau
of the Census of the Department of Commerce has for many years
collected statistical data on livestock, livestock products, pastures,
forage crops, and farms and ranches. The Tariff Commission has
conducted investigations of manufacturing costs and returns on such
range products as wool and beef cattle.
The State agricultural experiment stations in each of the 17
Western States have individually undertaken some work on a variety
of problems, centering on range management, animal husbandry, and
economics. Limited research is under way at most of the 13 col-
leges and universities that offer detailed work in grazing. The Car-
negie Institution of Washington and the Boyce Thompson Insti-
tute for Plant Eesearch have both investigated problems that bear
directly or indirectly upon range vegetation.
The research by all agencies for convenience of comparison may
be arranged in three groups. The most effort has been expended
in group 1, the least in group 3. None, however, has adequately met
the needs of the problems.
THE LAG IN RESEAKCH AND EXTENSION
187
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
1. Eange management (systems
of grazing, livestock distribu-
tion, etc.).
2. Range botany.
3. Range animal husbandry
(breeding, supplemental
feeding, diseases, etc.).
4. Range ecology (changes in
range vegetation under va-
rious influences and treat-
ments).
1. Natural revegetation.
2. Effect of grazing on forests.
3. Range economics.
4. Artificial reseeding.
5. Nutritional value of range
plants (including chemical
analyses) .
6. Watershed management.
1. Grazing capacity.
2. Range wildlife.
3. Degree of utilization.
4. Range soils.
5. Range weather.
6. Range entomology.
7. Range plant breeding.
Both the number of agencies engaged in research on range prob-
lems and the number of range-research projects undertaken — 90 by
the Forest Service and 140 by the State agricultural experiment
stations — give a misleading impression of the amount of effective and
lasting work performed. Many of the agencies are interested in only
one or two local problems; and emphasis in their research, which is
often empirical in character, depends to an appreciable extent upon
individual initiative rather than upon a planned, coordinated investi-
gative program. Many of the projects, particularly in the early
days, were small part-time jobs for one man, requiring less than one
man-year of work for completion, as, for example, the chemical
analysis of a poisonous range plant. Moreover, a great deal of the
first work was as much range extension as research, consisting in
a large measure of experimental demonstrations designed to create
among range land administrators and stockmen a better understand-
ing of range problems and their important phases. A considerable
portion of the early research, although of real value at the time, was
empirical and extensive in character, and has been shown in the
light of subsequent intensive investigations to have little application
to present-day conditions except to solve local problems and to serve
as background for future studies. Effective research, that compre-
hensively attacks region-wide problems and determines urgently
needed facts, is largely a development of the last decade.
The Forest Service has effectively organized and coordinated its
effort between various problems, lines of work, and range regions.
It has recognized the national significance of range research and
planned the comprehensive range-investigative program explained
in detail later in this report.
EXPENDITURES
It has been estimated that 100 million dollars are spent annually
on research in the United States. Nineteen million was spent by
the Federal Government alone in 1933; of this, research on range
problems in all their aspects, drew not over $175,000, or less than
1 percent. An additional $75,000 was invested by State agricultural
experiment stations. In 1900, range livestock was valued at approxi-
mately 280 million dollars, but only a few hundred dollars of Federal
funds were spent in range research proper. By 1930, the range-
livestock value had increased to 770 million dollars, and about $130,-
000 was expended in Federal range research, or about 0.02 percent.
Contrast this with relative expenditures for research in some other
agricultural industry such as poultry or dairying. In 1930, the value
188
THE WESTEKN RANGE
of range livestock exceeded the value of poultry raised by 120 mil-
lion dollars and yet no more Federal money was spent for range
research than for poultry research, all of which was essential. From
1900 to 1930 the value of dairy products has consistently been from
two to two and one-half times the value of range livestock. But
during the same period Federal expenditures in dairy research have
exceeded those for range research by 350 to 400 percent. Consider-
ing the greatly increased values that have come from these dairy
studies, no one would question the desirability of continuing or even
expanding them.
Federal expenditures in research on range problems are limited
almost exclusively to the Department of Agriculture.
From incomplete estimates, the value of range livestock and cor-
responding Federal expenditures in range research expressed in
dollars and percent of value are as given in table 29.
TABLE 29. — Comparison of livestock values and range research 1915-30
Year
Value of
range
livestock
Expended for Fed-
eral range research
Year
Value of
range
livestock
Expended for Fed-
eral range research
Amount
Percent
Amount
Percent
1915
$300, 000, 000
810,000,000
$50,000
75,000
0.017
.009
1925
$550, 000, 000
770, 000, 000
$100, 000
130, 000
0.018
.017
1920
1930
NUMBER OF WORKERS
There are probably less than 100 technical workers devoting their
full time to research on range problems in the United States today.
Because much of the work is not full time and varies greatly from
year to year, it is impossible to estimate accurately the total man-
years of work done in any calendar year. A generous estimate would
be 125 man-years of work annually. The Forest Service performs
about 45 of these man -years of work, other bureaus of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture about 25, the State agricultural experiment sta-
lions about 45, and the remaining 10 are scattered among colleges,
universities, and other research agencies.
Approximately 50 percent of these workers are engaged in research
on conservation and management of the range forage resource, which
includes investigations in range and watershed management, range
reseeding, range botany, etc., 20 percent are in range-animal hus-
bandry, 15 percent in range economics, largely at the State experi-
ment stations, and the remaining 15 percent are distributed in the
fields of range wildlife, range weather, range soils, and range
entomology.
RANGE EXTENSION
Range extension is the making available to stockmen and range-
land administrators by demonstrations, discussions, addresses, and
publications the results of studies and experience. Although re-
search on range land problems has been far from adequate, the re-
sults that have been obtained have not been applied on the ground
to their fullest possibilities. One main reason has been the lag in
THE LAG IN BESEAKCH AND EXTENSION 189
extension work which is the intervening step between research and
the practical application of its findings.
In the United States, range extension was to a large degree merged
with research until about 1920, and was practically nonexistent as a
distinct activity. Since 1923, when a definite range -extension pro-
gram was first formulated, the extension services of the State agricul-
tural colleges, cooperating with the State agricultural experiment
stations and the United States Department of Agriculture, have re-
ported a limited amount of work in each of the 11 Western States,
principally in animal husbandry, rodent control, and improved graz-
ing methods. Despite admirable results from the demonstrations
and other work already performed, extension specialists attribute
the pronounced lag in range extension primarily to (1) high cost
of demonstrations, which in order to be effective involve compara-
tively large areas and herds of sheep or cattle, and (2) inadequate
control and administration of the unregulated public domain, result-
ing in an indifferent attitude of many stockmen toward improved
range methods.
EXAMPLES OF NEGLECTED UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF RANGE RESTORATION
AND MANAGEMENT
Studies undertaken to date, as thus outlined, have covered a rather
wide scope and have contributed highly useful data ; but actually they
represent a thoroughgoing attack on only a small fraction of urgent
vexing questions that constantly arise to plague the stockmen and
land administrator. Facts, clinched by convincing proof, on com-
plex and controversial points are especially inadequate for correction
of much range depletion. This serious lack of basic management in-
formation applies over a surprisingly large sweep of problems
relating to range plants, to animals, and to their environment.
What are some of these challenging management problems of both
public and privately owned grazing lands? A few examples will
indicate how far research must still go to provide an adequate basis
for their solution.
PROBLEMS OF GRAZING CAPACITY
General studies and observations on grazing capacity have for
sometime been conducted throughout the West, but intensive studies
have been started in only a few places and on a few kinds of range,
and chiefly within the last decade — years after their need was pain-
fully apparent. As for other agencies, in the 17 western range
States with their multitude of different forage types and varying
management needs, only seven State agricultural experiment sta-
tions (New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Cal-
ifornia, and Washington) had published by 1920 results of grazing
capacity studies. Even in 1930 (15) only two additional stations
(Colorado and Texas) were undertaking even limited work in this
field (155).
Research on grazing capacity has not yet been conducted on many
important western range types.
190 THE WESTERN RANGE
THE ROLE OF VEGETATION IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
Western grazing lands no longer are valued for their forage crops
alone. In fact, on many areas, as will be made clear later in this
report, forage values are far outweighed by watershed values which
directly or indirectly affect big populations and enormous invest-
ments in agricultural and urban facilities and industries. It is im-
perative, therefore, that management of range lands that are also
watershed lands take into account their future productivity not
only of forage but also of usable water, the most valuable "crop" in
many localities of the West. The objective on such lands is a type
of management that so far as possible will harmonize grazing with
watershed needs.
Protection of watersheds, one of the primary reasons for the estab-
lishment of the national forests, has been given special consideration
by the Forest Service for 25 years and more. Noteworthy among
the findings of studies and controlled experiments which have been
conducted in several localities, is the further evidence, both vegeta-
tional and geologic, of the influence of plant cover on surface run-
off and abnormal erosion, in relation to grazing. Western ranges
and watersheds, however, comprise a complex pattern of soil, topog-
raphy, vegetation, and climate. Consequently, numerous phases of
this big problem, so closely tied in with the welfare of western com-
munities, remain unhandled.
The local and national importance of these problems pertaining
to forage-and-forest influences, discussed in detail later in this re-
port, argues for the speedy gathering of a more adequate supply
of measured facts.
KEY FORAGE PLANTS
What are the most important range plants in the various grazing
types and regions, evaluated as to their growth requirements, forage
value, or response to climate? Nelson (93) has shown, in connec-
tion with growth requirements and limits of resistance to grazing,
that utilization of black grama in excess of 80 to 85 percent of the
foliage at the end of the grazing season results in smaller forage
crops in succeeding years. But what is safe closeness of use for
many other important forage plants and types in other regions?
Also, from the dual standpoint of animal nutrition and forage main-
tenance, what is the proper season of range use, type by type ? And
again, much observational information has been gathered throughout
the West; but detailed data are available for only a few localities
and a few sets of conditions.
What is the exact effect of climate on forage plants and on forage
yield? A relatively small amount of investigation at the South-
western, Intermountain, and Northern Kocky Mountain Forest and
Range Experiment Stations, the Arizona and New Mexico Agricul-
tural Experiment Stations, and the Carnegie Institution of Wash-
ington has yielded detailed data, but on only a mere fraction of the
important range plants of the West. The species studied vary
greatly in behavior ; what about the other equally important plants
and their relation to range management ? Meager data and general
observations of protected plots have further shown the wide fluctua-
tion in forage yield and grazing damage between successive years,
THE LAG IN RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
191
but the combined range damage from drought, overgrazing, and,
locally, rodents has not been unscrambled and the causes separately
evaluated.
ARTIFICIAL REVEGETATION
What are the possibilities of successfully restoring the grazing
and watershed-protective values of depleted ranges by artificial
means when nature is too slow? The complete answer to this very
practical question is not yet known. The opportunities offered for
range revegetation by direct seeding or transplanting of native
forage species or exotics have never been adequately explored. Still,
the work already done in this field, with a limited number of plant
species, indicates considerable promise under favorable conditions
and has pointed out the need for more comprehensive testing.
Success has been attained in numerous depleted mountain mead-
ows. Obviously, however, species that are suited to high mountain
areas on which precipitation is favorable are not generally adaptable
to the more arid foothill and desert ranges at lower elevations.
What forage plants can be established successfully on depleted por-
tions of these semiarid grazing lands? What are the limitations in
site, in time, and in cost '< What possibilities are there for improving
species or strains of range plants? What are the practical tests for
determining which treatment is most practicable: (1) Artificial re-
vegetation, (2) natural restoration, or (3) a combination of the
two? The Bureau of Plant Industry and the Forest Service — the
pioneers in this field, along with the several State agencies — have
shown that, within limits, artificial revegetation holds much prom-
ise. But a maze of unsolved problems lies ahead.
INTERPLAY OF ANIMAL FACTORS IN THEIR EFFECT ON RANGE
Only the merest start has been made on the complex problem of
forage provision and management for game animals on livestock
ranges. Wildlife management is just beginning to receive widespread
attention from the research angle. As yet few studies have yielded
a scientific basis for dealing with large numbers of both classes of
animals. Meanwhile, local overgrazing of jointly used ranges con-
tinues.
Illustrative of the unsolved nature of problems in the wildlife
field is the difference of opinion relative to rodents. Any attempt
to evaluate rodents in relation to range at once raises the question :
Are rodents beneficial or detrimental? Or, more specifically, are
rodents, particularly pocket gophers, an essential factor in preserv-
ing the proper plant cover on the range, or are they a factor in
range depletion including erosion? Obviously, the questions have
many angles and various answers, depending on the species of rodent,
the kind of range, and other local conditions. Adequate factual
information upon which to settle these questions is lacking. Uncer-
tainty and local controversy have, of course, resulted. The greatest
immediate need is additional research concerning the life histories
of range rodents, the relations between burrowing animals and water-
shed conservation, and the influences of burrowing animals upon the
range vegetation.
192 THE WESTERN RANGE
NEED FOR SIMPLE, USABLE MEASURES OF RANGE CONDITION
In shifting attention from range animals to the range itself, one
encounters a widespread need for simple, usable measuring sticks
of range condition. This need is especially surprising in view of
the fact that considerable attention has been devoted quite logically
to the old but still moot questions : What constitutes proper utiliza-
tion? Or overgrazing? For certain types and plants, more par-
ticularly on the national forests, fairly adequate indicators of range
condition are available. In dealing with the less obvious conditions,
however, and with unfamiliar vegetation types not yet studied in
detail, size-ups of range condition lack uniformity, invite unrecog-
nized damage, and may even become controversial — and they are
likely to so continue until more simple, usable measuring sticks,
demonstrable on the ground, are available. Their development
constitutes a real challenge to research.
MANY OTHER UNSOLVED PROBLEMS
In addition to these examples of unsolved or partially solved
problems, a long list of other important ones in such fields as forage
values, range-plant moisture and other site requirements, range-
plant breeding, range economics, soils, and range entomology are
indicative of the scope of the research job ahead. A multitude of
facts must be unearthed to answer such questions as: (1) How
may western range condition be recognized and evaluated with
greater certainty and simplicity? (2) How may range forage be
most adequately improved and maintained and range soil safe-
guarded? And (3) how may the range as a basic resource be
handled to make its maximum contribution to social welfare?
THE NET RESULT — A CONCLUDING APPRAISAL
In essence, there are two — and only two — approaches to land-
management policies and practices: (1) The slow evolution of rule-
of -thumb large-scale trial-and-error experience, and (2) tested facts.
The rule-of -thumb approach, by and large throughout the West, has
failed thus far to develop management that has stood practical test
as witnessed by the practically universal depletion. Research has
been, and still is, woefully inadequate in furnishing proven facts to
strengthen, where needed, a better factual basis of management.
Many needed management facts have accumulated too slowly for
maximum effectiveness; and on other problems, no studies have as
yet been started. The meager yield of experimental results on
obscure or controversial points has never caught up with the in-
creasing need. The resultant lack of dependable information on
especially complex problems has thus failed to provide a basis for
curbing much continuing depletion, has retarded application of
corrective measures on Federal lands, and has delayed extension
efforts among private owners.
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS
By E. I. KOTOK, Director, California Forest and Range Experiment Station
A number of financial handicaps faced by the range livestock pro-
ducer have tended to prevent the most effective balance between
capital investments, production costs, breeding herds, credit facili-
ties, and marketing opportunities. Since a seriously unbalanced
relationship adversely affects the opportunity for profit, and there-
fore tends to affect the management of the range, an understanding
of the handicaps is needed.
The livestock producer has not been entirely a free agent to manip-
ulate at will the elements that enter into production costs, nor has
he been able to adjust these with the constant fluctuations in the
market price of his ultimate salable product. This section will
attempt to explain the ways in which financial factors largely be-
yond the control of the producer have influenced business manage-
ment and range practice, tending toward range depletion.
THE RELATION OF CAPITAL INVESTMENTS TO PROFITS AND RANGE
DEPLETION
The home ranch, the range, the breeding herds, and the other
required improvements and facilities form the production plant of
the livestock business. For continued and sustained returns these
elements must be in balance with each other and with the salable
annual output, otherwise potential profits may be converted to actual
losses.
The percent of the total investment carried in lands, herds, im-
provements, and facilities varies markedly from operator to oper-
ator, but there are general and distinct regional differences and also
characteristic variations between cattle and sheep outfits. These
variations are considered as they influence profits, range-manage-
ment practices, and range depletion.
In table 30 trie percentage of the capital investment in each of the
major inventory items is given. These are composite figures and
represent approximations based on a series of studies conducted by
the State agricultural experiment stations and the United States
Department of Agriculture. The data available present difficulties
in the segregation of the items and distinct limitations in making
regional or periodic comparisons. The range livestock enterprise
varies widely, from the farmers who have a few head of stock pro-
viding a supplemental source of income, at one extreme, to the live-
stock producer owning 50,000 sheep or 10,000 cattle on the other
end of the scale. Obviously, summaries covering such vast differ-
ences in size of units must either include all ranches in a region or
must be carefully selected samples. Another difficulty is that con-
tinuous records on the same sampled ranches do not cover an extended
period of time; neither are the fluctuations in the commodity value
193
64946—36 14
194
THE WESTERN RANGE
of the dollar considered in all studies. But even with these limita-
tions, the significant trends between regions may be safely singled
out.
TABLE 30. — Approximate percentages of capital investments in the livestock in-
dustry in major items, for 6 regions
Region
Cattle outfits
Sheep outfits
Herds
Land
Other
Herds
Land
Other
1. Montana and North Dakota -
Percent
38.0
42.0
52.0
43.0
40.0
38.0
Percent
50.0
48.0
31.0
45.0
50.0
50.0
Percent
12.0
10.0
17.0
12.0
10.0
12.0
Percent
56.0
52.0
55.0
56.0
53.0
50.0
Percent
37.0
38.0
31.0
33.0
35.0
39.0
Percent
7.0
10.0
14.0
11.0
12.0
11.0
2. Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Ne-
braska, Kansas
3. Arizona and New Mexico
4. Utah, Idaho, Nevada .
5 California
6. Washington, Oregon. ..
The composite average indicates that somewhere near 50 percent
of the capital investment in the cattle industry is in lands, 40 per-
cent in herds, and 10 percent in improvements and facilities. In the
more settled regions, where land prices are higher, the investment
in lands is above this average. As shown in table 30, less than a
third of the investments for Arizona and New Mexico is in lands
and more than half in herds. In part this may be explained by the
fact that this region includes extensive areas of public domain and
national forests used for grazing. There is, however, in this region a
correspondingly greater investment required for improvements which
the livestock owner has been forced to build on the public range.
For sheep the average percentage of investment in land varies from
31 percent in the Southwest to 39 percent in the Pacific Northwest,
and in herds from 50 percent in the Pacific Northwest to 56 percent
in eastern Montana, North Dakota, and also in parts of the inland
empire.
The important inferences that may be drawn from these data are
that all through the range country, except in the Southwest, the cat-
tleman has had to invest relatively more heavily in lands than the
sheepman ; that Arizona and New Mexico producers have less invest-
ment in lands and correspondingly higher percentages in herds for
cattle than any of the other regions; that Utah, Idaho, and Nevada
sheepmen have also a relatively low percent of investment in lands
and a correspondingly higher percent in herds.
The percent of the total investment in lands or in herds varies
materially as the price of livestock goes up or down. While both
lands and livestock have irregularly risen in unit price, the former
has been more stable with a general upward trend and the latter
has fluctuated within wide margins. This in effect means that if the
figures in table 30 represent individual years when livestock unit
prices were high, the percentage shown as invested in stock is rela-
tively higher than it would be over a number of years. Most of the
data are from studies conducted in 1927-28, when livestock^ prices
were high, which means in effect that the actual percentage given as
the investment in lands is lower than it would be over extended
periods. The general rise in livestock unit prices and the periodic
changes are illustrated by data given in tables 31 and 32.
FINANCIAL, HANDICAPS
195
TABLE 31. — Trend of range-cattle 'prices, in actual value per head, and in
relative purchasing power of the dollar, 1867-1928 *
Year
Actual
value
Relative
purchasing
power
Year
Actual
value
Relative
purchasing
power
1867
Dollars
15.79
Percent
44.2
1902
Dollart
18.76
Percent
95.5
1872
18 12
62 8
1907
17.10
77.7
1877
15.99
69.7
1912
21.20
93.3
1882
18 89
84.0
1917
35.88
97.2
1887
19.79
103.3
1922
23.80
71.3
1892
15.16
83.2
1927
29.87
84.2
1897
16.65
103.5
1928
38.95
110.5
i U73).
TABLE 82. — Farm value per head of cattle and sheep in four western States,
1932-34 1
State
Cattle
Sheep
1932
1933
1934
1932
1933
1934
Idaho
$19. 46
$15. 88
$18. 05
$3.22
$4.10
$4.86
Montana
20.87
17.19
18.28
2.97
4.12
4.58
Oregon .
21.09
15.91
24.09
2.93
3.92
4.64
Washington
25.52
19.87
26.63
3.31
4.45
5.00
1Matson, Palmer, and Haight. Practical Livestock Operations and Credits. Farm
Credit Administration, Twelfth District, Federal Intermediate Credit Bank Data. 11 pp.
1935. [Mimeographed.]
These changes in livestock prices are reflected perceptibly in the
total capitalized valuation of an enterprise and materially modify
the percentage of the investment chargeable to the herds. For ex-
ample the difference in inventory value as between 1922 and 1928
for cattle as shown in table 31 would be an increase of 64 percent
in the value of the herd. Table 32 illustrates this strikingly for even
short periods. For example, inventory values in cattle decreased
from 1932 to 1933 by 18 to 25 percent, whereas sheep inventories
for the same period increased by approximately 33 percent. Saun-
derson and Vmke's studies (121) further illustrate this point. The
total investment per head of Montana range sheep and the ewe
value per head are estimated in table 33.
TABLE 33. — Ratio of ewe value per head to total investment in lands, herds,
etc., per head, Montana, 1890-1932
Year
Total in-
vestment
per head
Ewe value
per head
Assumed
land, im-
provement,
etc., value
per head
Ratio of
ewe value
to total
investment
1890-..
$3.75
$2.50
$1.25
0.66
1895
2 95
1.50
1.45
.51
1900
4 30
2 85
1 45
66
1905
4.95
3.50
1.45
.71
1910
5 60
4 15
1.45
.74
1915
8.00
5.00
3.00
.63
1920.. .
25 00
10.25
14.75
.41
1925
32 00
11 50
20 50
36
1930.-
30.00
7.00
23.00
.23
1931
25 00
5.00
20 00
.20
1932
20 00
3 50
16 50
18
196 THE WESTERN RANGE
The difference between total investment and ewe value as shown
in column 3 of table 33 is an approximate index of the amount in-
vested per animal in lands, improvements, and facilities. From this
index figure it will be noted that investment per head for lands,
improvements, and facilities is low and approximately constant up
to 1910, with an index figure 1.45. In 1915, the index is about dou-
bled, and from 1920 to 1930 the index rises sharply. From these
indexes the conclusion may safely be drawn that the capital invest-
ment per unit head in lands, improvements, and facilities has stead-
ily mounted reaching a high peak in 1930. The ratios in the last
column represent an approximate ratio of the investment in the
breeding herd to the total investment in the enterprise, and indicate
that the investment in the breeding herd has steadily declined from
1890 to 1932. This basic relationship between the percentage in-
vested in lands and the percentage invested in livestock is of utmost
importance in determining final profits and also has played no small
part in shaping range management practice — much of it of a charac-
ter detrimental to the range.
Total investments illustrate the whole trend of overcapitalization,
from a unit head investment of $3.75 in 1890 to a high of $32 in
1925 and a drop to no less than $20 in 1932.
From the standpoint of profits, the breeding herd, the basis of the
salable crop, is of primary importance. Obviously, other things being
equal, the producer who maintains the highest percentage of his
capital investment in breeding stock will show the greatest returns.
This fact is well illustrated by a number of studies. In Wyoming
(168), "operators whose investment in cattle represented at least a
third of their total investment were doing better financially than
those operators who had less than one-third of their investment in
cattle." In Utah (103) , "profits tended to decrease as the percentage
of total investment represented by cattle decreased. * * * That
ranch tends strongly to be profitable which has 25 percent or more
of its total investment in cattle, and 35 to 45 percent is still more
profitable."
One of the great difficulties in maintaining this desirable ratio,
favoring the highest relative investment in livestock, particularly
when livestock valuation is high, is the scarcity and availability of
reasonably priced range. Home-ranch and range-land prices have,
during the past two decades, attained levels far beyond their possible
earning capacity, and the stockman has thus been forced to invest
far too much in high-priced land. Under these conditions, if he con-
tinues to run the number of livestock that ranch and range should
support adequately under normal conditions, he will inevitably find
it difficult to show a fair profit on his investment, or he may even
go in the red. He then resorts to a very tempting alternative which
may temporarily establish a normal balance between investments in
lands and investments in livestock, namely, he overstocks the ranch
and range. For a short period this may bring more income and
probable profits, but, if so, it is at the expense of the production
capacity of the land. It is a form of exploitation which inevitably
leads to range depletion. When this process has gone far enough
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 197
he finds himself in a vicious circle. The depleted range, if stocking
is not reduced, produces less pounds per animal or he is forced to
buy more range or lease miore feed. This again destroys the eco-
nomic balance he must maintain between breeding herds, invest-
ments, and production possibilities.
Even for the stockman who leases range the same processes operate
where exorbitant and fictitious ranch and range land values are com-
petitively established. On many of the western outfits prohibitive
charges for leasing range have been the direct cause of overstocking,
as the only means of maintaining reasonable unit-carrying costs of
herds. The stockman, never assured of renewal, proceeded under
these conditions to "mine" the forage crop in one season.
All agriculture, as well as the livestock industry, has suffered
severely from inflated land values, which become particularly bur-
densome when crops must be sold in a depressed market. High land
capitalization is further complicated by the fact that much ranch and
range lands were purchased on partial-payment plans during periods
of inflation and payments had to be met during periods of depressed
prices, thus presenting a double burden of high carrying costs.
To reduce high carrying costs of land when livestock prices are low
overstocking is resorted to on the false assumption that losses may be
reduced. In so doing losses may temporarily be averted or deferred,
but finally the basic land resource may suffer to a degree where con-
tinuance of a sustained profitable enterprise is not possible even when
good markets again prevail.
Inflated land values have thus increasingly put out of balance the
percentage of the capital investment which should be carried in the
herd, have reduced prospective profits, induced bad husbandry, and
lastly, have been a major factor in overstocking and range depletion.
THE RELATION or PRODUCTION COSTS TO PROFITS AND RANGE DEPLETION
It is in many instances impossible to make a direct comparison of
the data found in the available detailed cost-of -operation studies. Not
always have the same common denominators been used; allowances
are sometimes made for contributed labor and interest on investment,
but it is difficult to so segregate these that safe comparisons can be
drawn.
In a general way the items and amounts that enter into operating
costs are reasonably well illustrated in information collected by the
Federal Intermediate Credit Bank20 as shown in tables 34 and 35.
These represent data for 1934, a year of relative average high expense
and low returns, and are reasonably representative for the 11
western States.
See footnote to table 32, p. 195.
198 THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 34. — Cost of grazing operation per unit head of sheep, 1984
Expense items
Types of lambing practice
Types of operation
Size of operation
Early
Early
to late
LSt6
Owner
Owner
and
lessee
Tran-
sient
Large
Me-
dium
Small
Labor
$1. 140
2.016
3.082
$1. 168
1.387
3.059
$0. 836
.796
2.213
$1.10
1.02
2.73
$1.06
1.41
2.68
$0.72
1.28
2.46
$1.09
1.46
2.52
$1.02
.98
2.71
$0.78
1.14
2.80
Feed and range
Carrying charges
Total costs
6.238
5.614
3.845
4.85
5.15
4.46
5.07
4.71
4.72
Detailed carrying charges:
Supplies..
.522
.737
.246
.346
.064
.329
.838
.581
.671
.355
.247
.061
.235
.909
.555
621
160
190
040
110
537
.52
.70
.23
.24
.05
.17
.82
.56
.71
.24
.26
.04
.25
.62
.59
.52
.23
.23
.05
.14
.70
.50
.64
.22
.26
.04
.25
.61
.57
.72
.20
.23
.01
.18
.80
.64
.65
.29
.23
.11
.11
.77
Taxes and interest
Auto expense
Personal and insurance .
Restocking (bucks,
rams)
Miscellaneous
Loss and depreciation. _
TABLE 35. — Cost of operation per unit head of cattle, 1934
Expense items
Large
Medium
Small
Average
Labor
$1.63
$1.47
$2.50
$1.89
Feed and range
1.07
1.36
3.25
1.97
Carrying charges
9.44
8.11
7.46
8.23
Total costs
12.14
10.94
13.21
12.09
Detailed carrying charges:
Supplies.. . ......
1.54
1.26
2.11
1.65
Taxes and interest
3.59
3.53
2.37
3.12
Auto expense
.58
.41
.95
.65
Personal and insurance
.98
.70
.18
.59
Restocking (bulls)
.73
.51
.08
.41
Miscellaneous ....
.16
.65
.38
. 42
Loss
1.86
1.05
1.39
1.39
All the items that constitute the cost of production and which must
be met ordinarily by current annual cash outlays can be grouped
conveniently into three classes — labor, feed, and carrying charges.
Of these, feed costs and that portion of the carrying charges directly
related to the land, such as taxes, interest, or rentals for leased land,
make up a substantial part of the total cost of operation.
The cost of feed and forage may become a controlling factor in
profits and influence to a large extent the development of range
practices. It is important, therefore, to consider how the stockman
gets his feed, what it costs, and how land and range management
affect the feed supply, profits, and the enterprise itself.
The western stockman obtains feed from owned or leased range
lands, permitted use on national forests, free range on public do-
main, and by raising or purchasing supplemental feeds. As stated,
the carrying costs of the commensurable lands which must produce
the wild forage and supplemental crop feeds, together with the cash
outlay for producing or buying feeds or for leasing range, make up
a substantial part of the whole cost of production. If these total
feed costs are inordinately out of line, profits diminish materially.
Feed frequently makes or breaks the stockman.
Unfortunately, the stockman has never been quite sure of his feed
sources. Even if he owns the land and has not abused it, there is no
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 199
certainty what the ranch or range may produce in crops or forage
for any given season. The vicissitudes of climate as a factor in
forage production have already been described. The forage crop
may vary from year to year; it may be wiped out by a drought or
lessened considerably in expected amount through a cycle of dry
years.
The western stockman is just as much at the mercy of weather as
any other crop farmer. Lack of rain, drying winds, low tempera-
tures during growing seasons, all take their toll in forage produc-
tion. Shortages in feed due to adverse climatic factors are in a
measure largely unpredictable and uncontrollable. To meet these
vagaries of climate, the prudent stockman, if he has the capital,
must invest in reserve feed supplies and additional range to meet
such emergencies. Otherwise he must meet the emergency in paying
exorbitant prices for feed, or is forced to sell his stock far below the
cost of production.
When a cycle of favorable climatic years comes, the general
tendency has been to increase breeding stock to the maximum. If,
with these conditions, there is also a rise in prices for stock, compe-
tition for range becomes active, land prices rise — whether for pur-
chase or lease — and thus the coincidence of a favorable market and a
good forage year may be vitiated by carrying costs of high-value
land and high forage 'costs.
Under adverse climatic conditions, even with depressed livestock
prices, the very shortage of feed induces a strong competitive market
for feed and range. Good or bad forage years, the stockman un-
provided with reserve feed has laid himself open, so far as feed or
forage is concerned, to a high competitive market and a correspond-
ing increase in cost of production.
These uncertainties as to availability of feed and its probable cost
introduce a major factor of uncertainty and hazard in the entire en-
terprise. They lead the producer to gamble for large gains whenever
the opportunity arises; and maximum stocking during good feed
years is the most tempting gamble, generally leading to range ex-
ploitation. In time of drought the producer who has built up his
operation by excessive stocking may find himself again in an acute
situation, particularly as forage costs reach high levels. As stated
by some observers (187), "judging from the history of the years
1886-87 and 1919-20, the occurrence of a very poor year or a sue-
cession of poor years usually means a crisis to many individual oper-
ators because of high operating expenses and great death losses among
cattle." This is confirmed by another study,21 which states : "One hard
winter or one severe drought may cause a heavier loss in 1 year
than has been gained in several years by heavy stocking."
The stockman tries to meet the severe financial stresses and strains
that he is subjected to by reducing carrying costs per unit head.
What are these possibilities for reduction in cost of production?
Some carrying charges are almost immutably fixed, such as taxes and
interest on indebtedness for land and stock. He may reduce labor
costs, but these form but a fraction of the total expenditures. If he
reduces labor too drastically, it may be at such a sacrifice in good
a Parr and Klemmedson. An Economic Study of the Costs and Methods of Range Cattle
Production in North Central Texas. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Agr. Econ. Prelim. Kept. 40
pp. 1925. [Mimeographed.]
200 THE WESTERN RANGE
care of the stock, losses from predators and poisonous plants, reduc-
tion in calf or lamb crop, and the poorer general condition and quality
of the salable animals that these losses may be materially dispro-
portionate to the gains made by decreased labor costs. He may reduce
the amount of supplemental feed per animal, and here again it will
be directly reflected in the condition of his herd. What he is likely
to do as the easiest way out to reduce unit production cost per animal
is to overstock his range.
The condition of the livestock, the percentage of lamb or calf crop,
are readily detected, and the stockman is reasonably well-informed on
these matters. He prizes his breeding herd as the important part of
the production plant. His interest in the range is, on the contrary,
less evident. In the desire to keep carrying costs per unit-head low,
he may hold too many stock on the range in a bad year, figuring that
the next year may be favorable and the range will revive. He over-
stocks in a good forage year because he is overenthusiastic about the
range capacity by contrast with the poor year, and he also gambles
that more good years must follow. The fact is forgotten or over-
looked that the condition of the range is a major influence in the
proper maintenance of the breeding herd and in the final increment
of calf or lamb crop, which in the last analysis determines the ratio
of income to cost of production. The effect of this is that on a very
important part of his capital investment a process of attrition is
initiated. This process frequently continues slowly, and is not per-
ceptible to the owner or lessee of the range. He does not appreciate
that it is cutting vitally into a part of his capital, just as important
as the capital invested in the herd, and that ultimately it means an
increase in the unit cost of production. Innumerable instances can
be cited where land purchased on the basis of high grazing capacity,
which might have been a good capital investment, because of abuse
through overstocking was reduced to one-half or one-fifth of its
original forage production and thus was converted into a poor invest-
ment and brought about unduly high unit-production costs. Such
methods mean higher unit costs for forage, if stocks are reduced to the
commensurate availability of forage; or, if the original number of
stock is maintained, the reduction in weight, quality, and offspring
will increase unit costs. And to this must also be added an annual
depreciation charge because of the depleted values in the range.
If overstocking continues, the important forage plants slowly are
reduced in number and some may even disappear. Pest plants and
less desirable plants invade and immediately start their conquest of
the range. If this overstocking should coincide with the prevalence
of a dry cycle, not uncommon in the western range States, startlingly
unfavorable changes become evident even to the most optimistic.
Sheet and gulley erosion, disappearance of common perennial grasses,
thin stands of annuals, closely cropped shrubs, increase in undesirable
and poisonous plant species, disappearance of springs, and lowered
water tables, are all signs that a range property has badly depre-
ciated, and that one important leg of the capital structure in a given
livestock enterprise has become shaky.
When this stage is reached this part of the capital structure (the
range) requires restorative treatment. Restoration of former forage
values is a costly process requiring labor and cash outlay. But the
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 201
first step in Lny positive curative process is the reduction or even total
removal of stock. If depletion is not serious and is recognized early
enough, reduction in numbers, more careful handling on the range,
and care in preventing too early grazing may suffice and give nature
an opportunity to heal the scars and renew vegetation. But depletion
may reach a point where costly gully control, artificial reseeding, and
grubbing of poisonous plants may be required, as well as reduction in
numbers of stock grazed. Investments and improvements may be
needed, such as development of new sources of water and fencing off
the most seriously punished lands from all use. These costs may
reach a figure of $5 per acre, an investment frequently more than the
land can carry under private ownership. Whether the producer
reduces the number of stock or makes further investments to restore
the productivity of the range, the yearly carrying charges must be
increased, and with it the unit cost of production.
Unfortunately the stockman is rarely ready to apply the stiff
remedy of reduction of stocking, even when he recognizes that the
range is going back, and rarely able to make the otherwise necessary
protective investments. Again he is caught in a vicious cycle, his
depleted range produces poorer stock, smaller yields in calves and
lambs, and higher losses. He delays as long as he can the reduction
in stock and so the situation grows worse, or if he resorts to the pur-
chase of more land, this again increases his investment in lands out
of proportion with the investments in breeding herds and creates a
corresponding increase in unit cost of production.
CREDIT FACILITIES AND THEIR RELATION TO PROFITS AND RANGE
DEPLETION
In the past the livestock producer depended for his credits on pri-
vate banks, loan associations, insurance companies, and occasionally
on commission men. Since the World War, Federal banking facilities
have become available, such as the War Finance Corporation, and
more recently the Farm Credit Administration.
Like all agriculture, the livestock industry has suffered in the past
from lack of favorable credit facilities. Loans carried high interest
rates and were extended only for short-term periods. With his larger
investments, the individual stockman has found the usual credit terms
even more onerous than has the crop farmer. Short-term loans might
suffice for current operations, incurred indebtedness, and to carry over
livestock held for a more favorable market. But if he desires to build
up his herd, purchase more land, improve facilities, or construct essen-
tial improvements on the range, long-term reasonably low interest-
bearing loans are necessary. Excepting for land purchases, credits
in the past for other needs have carried high interest rates, and rates
of 9 to 10 percent were common. A study made by the Oregon
Agricultural College (105) illustrates this difficulty. They found in
1925 that—
There is a considerable variation in the interest rate * * * It is, of
course, a fact that many of the banks charge 9 percent and 10 percent, and it is
also a fact that the cattle-loan companies charge 9 percent to 9% percent or even
10 percent interest. * * * It is unfortunately true, however, that the cattle
and sheep industries are at the present time charged the highest rates of interest
known in the commercial world.
202 THE WESTERN RANGE
Under these conditions it is not surprising that many improvements
needed to make more advantageous use of the forage were not under-
taken and the range frequently suffered because of it.
For a long period of time, banks, cattle-loan associations, and, more
recently, even Federal banking agencies have based their loans largely
on the number of livestock owned by the borrower, without much
consideration as to other assets, availability of feed, or condition of
the livestock. Some banks have refused to recognize that range land
had any loan value. This trend has led indirectly to building up or
holding more livestock than the range could carry so as to build up
collateral for loans. Obviously, if the loan were made with adequate
restrictions safeguarding the range, in the long run loans would be
better secured, to the advantage of borrower and lender alike. Even
the Federal banking agencies have failed to recognize the full import
and need for care of the collateral existing in the range. In more
recent loans through the Farm Credit Administration the grazing
privileges on a national forest held by the borrower has been
considered as an asset and valued as collateral.
On the face of it this appears to give value to range even if not
owned. This practice has been based on the theory that a national-
forest permit is a negotiable asset, is revocable only for serious cause,
and transferable under certain prescribed conditions. Such Federal
loan agencies have also requested, in order to add security to the loan,
a guarantee that the Forest Service would not make reductions in the
number of stock for permits carrying loans. The Forest Service,
among other reasons, has insisted and contends that to guarantee no
reductions might defeat the integrity of the assets themselves if and
when reductions in number of stock were necessary to safeguard the
range. Dry cycles, producing adverse conditions and need for range
rehabilitation may necessitate large and immediate reductions in live-
stock grazed. Here again the fact that the production plant of the
grazier consists of herds and range has been lost sight of. In the long
run the best way to protect the loan and insure sustained profits to
the borrower would be to insist that the range be given proper care,
whether owned or leased.
No continuous record of indebtedness carried per unit animal
extending for a long period and covering a single region is available.
The general evidence indicates that there was a steady but small
increase in indebtedness per animal from 1880 to 1910 and that there-
after the indebtedness increased sharply. One reason for mounting
indebtedness is traceable in the extension of old loans which were not
reduced in 20 years.
Some examples of indebtedness may be given to show the amounts
carried by the producer. In two studies made in Colorado (&£, #5)
in 1922-25 a total average indebtedness of $32,446 for 800 head of
stock, or $40 per head, is reported in one instance, and in another a
total average indebtedness of $33,200 against 1,016 cows, or $33 per
cow. A study made in 1926 in New Mexico (174) reports an average
total indebtedness of $27,552 against 1,224 animal units per ranch, or
$23 per animal unit.
Indebtednesses in the northern Great Plains region in 1924 are
given in table 36 (187).
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS
203
TABLE 36. — Indebtedness per ranch and per head of stock in the northern G\reat
Plains region, 1924
Ranch
Stock per
ranch
Cows per
ranch
Indebt-
edness
per ranch
Indebt-
edness
per head
of stock
Indebt-
edness
for cattle
only
A
Number
85
Number
34
Dollars
3,826
Dollars
45
Dollars
13
B...
159
72
5,300
33
12
o.
298
141
8,023
27
13
D
570
285
17, 035
30
17
E_.
1,734
753
43, 611
25
19
Iii this same study the average inventory value per head was
placed at $39.71. Of the total indebtedness per head of livestock on
the ranch it will be seen that the chattel mortgage forms but a small
part of the total.
The stockman started with small initial investments in lands and
proceeded through a series of years to build up his herds to high
numbers without encumbering himself with indebtedness. True, in
severe years when losses both in calf and lamb crops and in breeding
stock were abnormally high, he had to resort to whatever credit
facilities were available to get a fresh start. Credit under such
conditions was extended at almost usurious rates.
The trend of easy credits, high interest rates, and their effect on the
profits of the stockman is well illustrated in certain findings in
Oregon (106) :
Inadequate finances often lower the profits, * * * partly because the
management is in the hands of the bank or loan company. * * * If the
owner has an equity of 50 percent or more in the entire plant * * * he
should be able to borrow the remainder at an interest rate of not over 7
percent * * * if his equity is much less than 50 percent, he will probably
have to pay 9- to 10-percent interest. * * * A 75-percent equity in a one-
band outfit is much better than a 25-percent equity in three or four bands.
A significant trend in finance and banking has been in operation
in the past 20 years and has contributed to increase average indebted-
ness. As working capital in all banks accumulated, western bankers
looking for outlets encouraged expansion in the livestock industry
and made credits readily available. Loans were made for the pur-
chase of lands and stock, and frequently to many persons unqualified
for the undertaking. Stockmen could not resist the temptation to
expand under such easy credits, even at high-interest rates. Fre-
quently this led to the building up of herds beyond the safe capacity
of the available range. In contrast to the easy credits of good times,
credits were restricted during depressions when money was most
needed. Insofar as the welfare of the range is concerned, the in-
flexibility of credit facilities was one serious cause in keeping the
number of stock out of balance with availability of range and was a
contributing cause of overstocking and range depletion.
THE BANKERS' VIEWPOINT
Bankers who specialize in livestock loans developed certain points
of view that reflected the attitude of the stockmen themselves. Some
of the abuses in the form of inflexibility of credits, short-term char-
204 THE WESTERN RANGE
acter of loans, and high interest rates were the result of causes out-
side the immediate control of either the bankers or the stockmen.
The livestock business grew up in the West as a highly speculative
venture ; and having built up such a reputation, it had to pay exact-
ing penalties when it was in the market for money. The crop the
grazier produces takes a long time to mature. The amount and quality
of the salable crop may shrink through unpredictable losses, and the
final sale price may, from day to day, month to month, and year to
year, have a wide spread, frequently falling below the cost of pro-
duction. On the basis of these conditions, the banker has built up
a system of livestock loans. His has been a short-term point of view,
with inevitable high rates and inflexibility of credit. It really has
amounted to a system of loans secured, not by a production plant,
consisting of ranch, range, and livestock capable of producing an
annual salable crop, but by a chattel mortgage on livestock. Little
consideration has been given until recently to the possibilities of
building up an industry on a sustained yield management concept,
wherein the whole production plant, feed, forage, and stock are kept
in balance and the vagaries of market and climate are partially
counterbalanced by reserves in feed and credits.
The banks and loan associations have done little in the past to dis-
courage or eliminate bad husbandry. They have done little to en-
courage management practices, and yet these are the real basis of
profits in a livestock enterprise, the true measure of the security of
the collateral, and the safety of the loan itself. At best it is difficult
to ascertain the real assets of a livestock producer. In some instances
loans have been made without even a count of the stock on the range
and no appraisal of the value of the stock, the range, improvements,
or capacity of the borrower as a livestock manager. Bankers have
often forced liquidation of well-bred breeding stock on depressed
markets, further lowering general prices and with practically no
returns to the producer. Good business would often have dictated
further loans to buy additional feed to carry the breeding herd over
the depression. At other times banks have enforced holding stock
until more favorable markets without supplying funds to buy ade-
quate feed, leaving the producer one alternative, that of keeping more
livestock than the range could safely carry, and with it the inevitable
sequence, overstocking, range exploitation, and range depletion.
Such myopic banking policies have not only contributed to the
disruption of the livestock business but have also caused the closing
of many banks that dealt in livestock loans in the West.
There are, however, many signs of a favorable change and through
the facilities of the Farm Credit Administration many of these
abuses can be checked. Among the more important provisions of
this new governmental agency which may go a long way to stabilize
the industry and ultimately safeguard the range itself are the fol-
lowing:
1. Overexpansion discouraged (a) by requiring a sound ratio
between all parts of the production plant; (b) by requiring reason-
able margins in security offered as collateral.
2. Longer periods of loans at much lower rates than were ever
before available to the industry as a whole.
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 205
3. Adequate showing of range and feed for the number of stock
to be handled.
4. An actual inventory, not only of stock, but range, feed, facili-
ties, etc.
5. A check on the moral risk of the borrower with the motto —
"The eyes of the master make fat cattle."
MARKETING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO PROFITS AND RANGE
DEPLETION
The availability of favorable markets, with some degree of stabil-
ity in prices for reasonable periods, is axiomatically the foundation
for any self -sustained industry. The livestock producer has on the
contrary never been sure of reasonably favorable market conditions
where a stable price range was assured for any short period.
As might be expected, the demand for the products of the western
range increased with the growth of the Nation, and its outlets to
markets have been facilitated tremendously with the extension of
the western links of the American railroad system. Modern live-
stock marketing is an outgrowth of the railroad and the cold-storage
plant which has made possible the central stockyard systems and
packing plant. From very simple marketing systems a complicated
machinery of distribution has grown up between the ultimate con-
sumer and livestock producer.
At present, the producer has these means of disposal of his prod-
uce— the local butcher, a local buyer, individual shipment on con-
signment in carload lots to a commission agent, and disposal through
cooperative shipping associations. The local buyer may be an in-
dividual speculator or represent a commission agent at some central
market or a local butchering concern.
^ The bulk of the salable livestock produced in the western range
States must be marketed at central stockyards and packing points;
local markets absorb but a small percentage of the total. The chief
market is therefore at some distant point.
Whichever method of marketing is used, the ultimate price the
producer may receive is determined by forces entirely out of his
control, which may have no relation to the cost of actual production.
As one stockman has very aptly stated :
It is fundamentally unsound to expect reasonable returns if a perishable
product must be taken 1,000 miles to the appraisal of a fluctuating market from
which there is no retreat.
Once the stock is on its way to market, the seller is entirely at the
mercy of the buyer.
Price fluctuation is well illustrated in the average prices at the
Chicago market for 5 years given in table 37.
But prices fluctuate even in shorter periods of time. The periodic
variations in prices illustrated in table 38 show the prices paid for
lamb and beef steers by periodic averages for 1930-34 at the Chicago
market. Thus we find a wide fluctuation both in yearly and even
monthly prices.
206
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 37. — Average prtees per 100 pounds for beef and lambs at the Chicago
market, 1930-34 *
Year
Beef steers,
1,100 to 1,300
pounds,
Good
Lambs, 90
pounds
down,
Good, and
Choice
1930
$11.81
$9.40
1931
8 92
7 77
1932
7.46
6. 11
1933
5 69
6 63
1934
7.31
7.82
i Bureau of Agricultural Economics statistics (153) and mimeographed reports for 1930-33.
TABLE 88* — Four monthly prices1 for years 1930-34 to illustrate variation in
monthly prices throughout year at Chicago market 2
[Sources of data: See footnote to table 37]
Month
19
30
19
31
19
32
19
33
19
34
Beef
Lambs
Beef
Lambs
Beef
Lambs
Beef
Lambs
Beef
Lambs
January .. . _
$13. 77
$12. 26
$11.31
$8.71
$8.57
$6.16
$5. 15
$6.01
$5.63
$8.33
April
13.17
8 77
8 72
9 35
7 31
6 91
5 33
5.43
6.96
9.49
July
9.95
10.13
7.36
7.67
8. 16
6.27
6.15
7.67
7.74
7.32
October
10.39
8 06
8 94
6 36
7 47
5 30
5 55
6.74
7.65
6.49
1 Beef, 1,100 to 1,300 pounds, Good; lambs, 90 pounds, Good and Choice.
2 Based on means of daily range of quotations.
What the producer ultimately receives, of course, depends on the
selling price, influenced among other things by the class of stock he
raises, the freight charges to market, and all the other miscellaneous
handling costs from the shipping point to the slaughterhouse. As
between regions, the market factor includes the freight differentials,
the general class of stock produced in the region, and the season
of marketing.
Table 39 (152) is a 5-year average (1930-34) for prices received
by producers, as of January 15 of each year.
TABLE 39. — Five-year average of prices received ~by producer per 100 pounds
State
Beef
Lambs
State
Beef
Lambs
Montana
$4.96
$5.64
New Mexico
$4.88
$5.83
Idaho
4 52
5 51
Utah
4.93
5.79
Washington
5.10
5.74
Nevada
5.66
6.26
Oregon
5.49
5.43
Colorado
5.44
6.84
California
5 66
6 76
Wy<vrnjng
5.37
6.35
Arizona
5.00
6.87
The maximum regional differences for beef in this period is $1.14
per 100 pounds as between the California-Nevada price and that
for Idaho, or about $14 per animal for a 1,200-pound steer. The
maximum regional differences in lambs is $1.44 per 100 pounds as
between Arizona and Oregon, or about $1 per animal. These major
regional differences in final price received by producer on a parity
basis of profits per animal can only be compensated for by corre-
sponding reductions in actual costs of production.
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 207
The inherent differences in the prices the producer may receive
for the same class of stock from region to region cannot be entirely
eliminated. But more serious problems confront the livestock pro-
ducer in attempting to secure a fair return for his product.
The uncertainty of price and lack of a free competitive market
was early recognized. The exhaustive report of the Federal Trade
Commission (165) covers this matter thoroughly. It shows that,
up to 1919, five large packers held complete control of the market.
The Packers and Stockyard Act of 1921, as a result of this inquiry,
sought to regulate the business of the packers by preventing unfair
discriminatory or deceptive practices. The chief evil it particularly
aimed to curb as relating to the livestock producer, was the monopoly
the packers enjoyed and which enabled them unduly and arbitrarily
to lower prices to the shipper. It attempted to secure a free and
unburdened flow of livestock from the West through the stockyards
and slaughtering centers. In 1926, and again in 1935, the Packers
and Stockyard Act of 1921 was further amended to eliminate other
marketing abuses.22
The fluctuating in and uncertainty of prices has been the hazard-
ous factor which in no small part has contributed to the instability
of the livestock enterprise. But even under the most favorable con-
ditions of open competition, price fluctuations from year to year
may reach wide extremes. This may become particularly oppressive,
because the producer has to make his cash outlays many years in
advance of the marketing of his final product. If the gestation
period is counted it takes, under very favorable practices, a year to
produce a lamb for market, a year and a half for a baby beef, and for
the usual market steer from western ranges at least 2% years.
Even the growth of cold-storage facilities, which makes possible
the evening out of supplies for consumption, does not show the ex-
pected stabilization of prices to the producer. The producer is in
a constant quandary what his product may bring. It is particularly
disturbing because it not only affects his current salable produce but
the produce which will reach market 2 years hence and for which
investment outlays are being currently incurred.
Ordinarily the producer is not a free agent to hold back sales
awaiting a rising and more favorable market. Frequently, in order
to meet current expenses, he must sell his stock in a most unfavorable
market. If he does hold on, he often does so at the expense of the
range because the hold-over stock are surpluses which ordinarily
should have been moved.
82 In the Stafford v. Wallacce case, no. 687691, an appeal of the enforcement of the
Packers and Stockyard Act of 1921, Mr. Chief Justice Taft in rendering opinion of the
Court stated : "The chief evil feared is the monopoly of the packers, enabling them unduly
and arbitrarily to lower prices to the shipper who sells and unduly and arbitrarily to
increase the price to the consumer who buys. Another evil which it sought to provide
against by the act was exorbitant charges, duplication of commissions, deceptive practices
in respect to prices, all made possible by collusion between the stockyards management
and the commission men on the one hand, and the packers and dealers on the other.
* The shipper whose livestock are being cared for and sold in the stockyards
market is ordinarily not present at the sale, but is far away in the West. He is wholly
dependent on the commission men." The Chief Justice in quoting the Swift & Go. v.
United States (196 U. S. 375), states: "The Swift case presented to this Court the
sufficiency of a bill of equity brought against substantially the same packing firms as those
against whom this legislation is directed, charging them as a combination of dominant
proportion of the dealers in fresh meat throughout the United States not to bid against
each other in the livestock markets of the different States, to bid up prices for a few days
in order to induce the cattlemen to send their stock to the stockyards, to fix prices at
which they would sell, and to that end to restrict shipments of meat when necessary
and all this in a conspiracy and single connected scheme to monopolize the
supply and distribution of fresh meats throughout the United States."
208 THE WESTERN KANGE
Depressed or glutted markets and slack sales often are the direct
cause of overstocking. With restricted credits and short reserves in
hay and other supplemental feeds that result from previous over-
stocking, the only alternative has appeared to be to further stock
the ranges, owned or leased, far beyond their capacity. The after-
math of enforced hold-over has been range depletion. In holding
down operating expenditures because of unfavorable markets and
low prices, there is little latitude for the producer. His fixed costs
remain constant, feed may even be proportionally higher than usual.
He resorts to overstocking and hence range depletion as the easiest
way out.
PROFITS
In comparison with other agricultural crop farming, the livestock
industry, over extended periods, has experienced as great or even
freater fluctuations in returns on investments. Under the most
avorable conditions profits have been exceedingly high. This has
attracted new capital, induced overexpansion, and brought the evils
that generally follow in the wake of overproduction.
One major control on profits as between regions is the nearness
to market — as indicated, this differential may mean as much as $14
per steer and $1 per lamb. To overcome this handicap the unfavor-
able regions must possess other advantages, either in cheaper lands,
cheaper forage, more favorable climate, or cheaper labor.
Another control is the capital-investment relationship as between
lands, herds, and improvements, and the unit size of operation. The
breeding herds must be at a safe maximum that the range can sup-
port without damaging it and that will still leave reserve feed for
critical years.
Still another factor is the size of the unit. This is well illustrated
by data secured in many studies. Highest net returns in Utah (103)
were reached by outfits having about 370 cattle. Records compiled"
by the Intermediate Credit Bank, twelfth district,23 in 1934 on
3,520,000 cattle show greatest profit on outfits of 360 to 580 head.
In Montana24 400 to 500 head of cattle appeared to be the size of
operation under which it was possible to approach maximum effi-
ciency; and another estimate (120) stated that net income from 100
head was $5, from 200 head $8, from 400 head $12, and that above
400 the net income declined until the figure for 900 head was $9.
For sheep the same general law of economic size applies, varying
by regions. Utah figures (46) for size of outfits and percent of
return are:
Percent
Sheep: return
230 to 1,000 9. 0
1,001 to 2,000 13. 8
2,001 to 3,000 17. 8
Over 3,000 13.6
Records compiled by Intermediate Credit Bank, twelfth district,25
in 1934 for over 9 million sheep show losses in cents per head as
follows :
23 See footnote to table 32, p. 195.
34 Saunderson, M. H. Some Materials Relating to Livestock and Land Valuation. Mont.
Agr. Expt. Sta., Dept. Agr. Econ. 23 pp., illus. 1935. [Mimeographed.]
25 See footnote to table 32, p. 195.
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 209
Outfit : Cent8
More than 3 bands 73
2 to 3 bands 73
1 band or less - — 86
In Wyoming (169), in 1925, ranches having between 7,001 and
8,000 ewes had a $9.49 return ; above this and below, progressively
smaller returns. The smallest returns were $2.64 for outfits of 1,000
and less and $2.68 for outfits with 9,000 and more. In Montana
(121) it was found that from the standpoint of production organiza-
tion the point of maximum efficiency in size could be realized at 3,600
to 4,500 ewes.
The hazardous features of the enterprises which affect profits and
induce malpractices injurious to the range have already been re-
viewed. The vicissitudes of climate may wipe out all profits for
many years unless adequate reserve feed is maintained. Poisonous
plants, animal diseases, predators, all take a toll that in bad years,
on depleted range, may go beyond 10 percent of the total herd. Ir-
regular prices, enforced hold-over, relatively high fixed costs, all
affect profits adversely.
In the final analysis profits for the man in the straight livestock
business without other sources of income will depend on :
1. A well-balanced outfit, as between capital investment in lands,
improvements, and herds.
2. A proper size unit.
3. A carefully managed range with sufficient reserves in feed.
4. A stabilized market.
5. Reasonably long-term credit facilities.
6. Sound managerial and business skill.
KEY FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Many causes can be assigned for what appears to be the needless
exploitation and depletion of our western ranges, but underlying all
of these are certain financial handicaps which influence markedly
and sometimes exclusively range practices and husbandry and are
detrimental to the maintenance of the forage and the soil which pro-
duces it. Sometimes initial financial difficulties start abuses on the
range; often abuses once started bring the stockman into further
financial difficulties. The key financial problems, which with the
passing of time have been persistently acute, have influenced ex-
ploitation, and often have greatly aggravated the results of poor
husbandry, can be traced to uncontrolled disadvantageous markets,
uncertain and onerous credit facilities, and high carrying costs of
land.
MARKETS
The most disturbing factor of the livestock industry has been
the uncertainty and lack of stability of its markets. Essentially this
is a common problem of all agriculture and is national in character
and in scope. The ordinary workings of supply and demand as a
reasonably stabilizing force have not functioned. The loss of Old
World markets, fluctuating changes in per-capita meat consump-
tion at home, the abnormal peak demands during the Great War, all
have merely accentuated previously existing disturbing factors.
64946— 36 15
210 THE WESTERN RANGE
Without assurances of reasonably steady markets, no industry can
build soundly, and when it takes 2 to 3 years to produce a salable
crop the consequences of an unstable market may be utter ruin.
The livestock producer has for many years been at the mercy of
the packer and processor. Regardless of supply and demand, prices
were set by a controlling group and in no relation to the cost of
production. Some of these abuses have been mitigated by Federal
and State laws, but essentially price is not fixed by the producer
but is still controlled by outside forces. High freight rates and
unfavorable differentials for some regions have placed further finan-
cial difficulties in the way of assuring a fair return to the producer.
Inadequate marketing facilities and lack of control in supply and
demand are still matters to be solved. There is promise that through
cooperative marketing and agricultural-adjustment programs stabili-
zation and fair prices may be attained.
CREDITS
Another financial difficulty of national character in the past has
been the lack of adequate facilities for credits. The essential weak-
ness in the credit system has been its assumption that the livestock
enterprise was a gamble and a venturesome business, and its conse-
quent extension only of short-term credits at high interest. This
credit policy in no small measure contributed to mismanaged range.
The unsound basis for loans, which ignored the care of the range
and considered the number of stock as the basis for collateral, the
easy markets during prosperous times, and restricted credits during
depressed markets, have not been conducive to far-sighted plans
for range management but rather encouraged liquidation of profits
out of the range itself.
ERRONEOUS FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
The practices of the "free range" days laid too much emphasis
on placing all the capital investments in livestock without regard to
required investments in lands. The pioneer days of the open range
constituted, as reported elsewhere, a period when the wealth of the
stockman was measured by the total number of livestock he owned.
His home ranch and improvements made up but a small portion of
his total investment. As long as he could keep competitors off the
virgin range, his task was merely the handling of his stock. Good
years brought him big profits and bad years sometimes wiped him
out. The predominant incentive of the open free range was the
desire to increase stock ownership to the maximum. Even when
competition for the open range became acute and some attempts at
apportioning areas between the graziers was voluntarily initiated,
the desire to maintain the largest possible herds persisted.
To secure a more permanent foothold, the more farseeing and
prudent, through purchase, accumulated lands within or adjacent to
the publicly open ranges. There was never, however, any sense
of individual security that the open range used would not be en-
croached upon. This led to many a bitter range strife — particularly
between cattlemen and sheepmen. While the industry suffered in
these vicious struggles, the range, the basic resource for their indus-
FINANCIAL HANDICAPS 211
try, suffered even more acutely and permanently. In many places, the
open public range was "eaten or trampled into the ground" in this
competitive strife, and — still worse — this range exploitation per-
sisted on the public domain and likewise on privately owned or
leased ranges held in single ownership.
A. clear understanding that the condition of the range reflects the
solvency and opportunity for profits of the livestock enterprise is
not universally accepted.
HIGH LAND VALUES
Unsound expansion by operators in lands and stock have reflected
the attitude of a new pioneer country, where superexpansion over-
rides a slower, but surer and sounder planned economy. The urge
to secure a foothold on the range, and then control, brought the in-
evitable rise in land prices beyond anything that any husbandry
could long support. High prices for poor or mediocre range lands
was just another straw on an already overloaded camel's back. In
the wake of expansion and high land prices came also the inevitable
rise in the tax base and increased taxes. These encouraged the
building up of excessive local governmental service which could not
be permanently sustained. When a break in the flow of taxes came,
tax delinquency brought complete break-down of local governmental
functions even below the margin that a rural American community
should have.
These financial problems all induced exploitation and short-term
points of view regarding the ranch and range, and with these came
depletion of the valuable natural resource, the foundation for a
profitable and enduring livestock business.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
By LYLE F. WATTS, Director, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station
INTRODUCTION
The lack of constructive national land policy designed to fit the
semiarid and mountain grazing lands of the West has been a major
factor in the depletion of our once great range forage resource. The
belief in universal private ownership of land, the application to
such a region of land laws designed to fit humid conditions, the
failure to classify lands according to their highest use, and interpre-
tation and administration of the statutes all played a definite part.
The adverse effects of our past land policy on the ownership pattern
of range lands and its influence on forage depletion are matters for
national concern.
The range country, as defined elsewhere, roughly includes all of
the usable range lands west of the line which divides the tall-grass
prairies from the short-grass plains. While there is much country
east of this line best suited for range use and also much admirable
crop land farther west, it is generally true that only in the most
favored locations is the low annual precipitation of the semiarid
West sufficient without irrigation for permanent, successful crop
agriculture.
A brief resume of the purpose back of the acquisition by the
United States of this immense area may provide a background
which will aid in understanding the causes for the mistreatment to
which it has been subjected. During the period of acquisition, the
first half of the nineteenth century, most of that great stretch of
country from Omaha west to the Rocky Mountains was mapped as
the Great American Desert.
Here was a country, stretching all the way from the Red River to the
Canadian boundary, which seemed destined by a kind Providence to provide
a permanent home for the Indian. Here he might live undisturbed, freed
from the pressure of the westward-moving pioneer, who would never * * *
settle in that semiarid, treeless country where all efforts at agriculture must
surely fail. * * * Beyond the Missouri could never be utilized by white
men, but must ever remain the home of the wild tribes who roamed over those
frightful and terrifying wastes. (#8.)
Why, then, did we acquire this country ?
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 (fig. 60) was made because Presi-
dent Jefferson was convinced that we must control the port of New
Orleans, then in French possession (74)- Free access to the Gulf
was essential to the development and future prosperity of the Ohio
and lower Mississippi Valleys. He sent Monroe to join Livingston,
our Ambassador to France, to bargain for the port and Napoleon
refused to relinquish the French claim unless he could include the
213
214
THE WESTERN RANGE
entire French possessions on the Mississippi River Drainage. Much
as they disliked to do so, our envoys acceded to his demands and that
immense area was added to the public domain (5).
Texas, a sovereign State which had recently won its freedom from
Mexico, was annexed in 1845. Settlement had been partly from
Mexico, but mainly through the efforts of an American colonizer,
Austin, who had been granted concessions from the Mexican Gov-
ernment (87). Through Austin's influence a large number of fron-
tiersmen from the United States had taken up land and settled in
the east portion. In self-protection against Mexico, they petitioned
for admission to the Union, and after a political battle they were
permitted to join. However, that immense area of predominantly
LOUISIANA i
PURCHASE 1
; FROM FRANCE [
! IN \803'""'\
FIGURE 60. — BUILDING OF THE WESTERN RANGE LANDS.
The future range lands of the United States were acquired in huge tracts within a space
of 50 years, with little if any thought of the wealth in forage and other products and
services that they comprised. Areas in millions of acres, from General Land Office
figures are : Louisiana Purchase, 529.9 ;, Texas Annexation (independent of the Texas
Purchase of 1850), 170.2; Oregon Territory, 183.4; Texas Purchase, 78.9; Mexican
Cession, 338.7 ; Gadsden Purchase, 19.0.
range lands was considered so worthless that we refused to assume
their public debt of $10,000,000, and in lieu they retained sovereignty
over all land within their borders (14.6). Final settlement of the
boundary claims of Texas was effected in 1850, when part of the area
claimed by Texas, including part of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colo-
rado, Wyoming, and Kansas, was acquired by purchase. Thus there
has been no Federal public domain within the present boundary of
the State of Texas.
The Oregon Territory was acquired in 1846, primarily because of
the flourishing fur trade which had been built up largely by John
Astor. This pioneer industry was so important that in spite of
objections we again included much additional land which was then
believed to be worthless. The great region acquired from Mexico in
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 215
1848 was wanted, partly because of agricultural or range values, but
more because we could foresee the need for the Golden Gate Harbor
and the Southern California ports. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853
was made primarily to provide an all-American route for the South-
ern Pacific Railroad (64) - Thus, range forage values seem to have
played little part and even not to have been visualized during the
period of acquisition.
The general excellence of the forage cover over the greater part
of the range country when the white man came in has been fully
described. Briefly, the 848 million acres which constituted the virgin
range supported close to its climax vegetation. Yet, within a single
life span the greater part of this resource was destined to serious
depletion. Much of the finest was to be denuded by the plow in an
attempt at cropping lands suited only for grass. Truly, we have
gone a long way to establish in fact the "Great American Desert" so
familiar on the maps of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trail days.
THE PERIOD OF DISPOSAL
The disposal of western range lands antedates the acquisition of
the West by our Government. The system followed in Texas and
the Southwest is of special significance.
Texas, the Gadsden Purchase, and the Mexican annexation were
all originally under Spanish ownership. Thus the Spanish phi-
losophy of land colonization was established over a very large area
prior to acquisition. In parts of Texas, New Mexico, and California
the beginnings of a landed aristocracy were well established. Army
officers, priests, personal friends of the ruling group, and adventur-
ers anxious to settle the new country, were favored by grants of land.
The civilization thus started, perhaps a remnant of the old feudal
system in Spain, was designed to perpetuate a landed aristocracy
and a lower caste to which land ownership was denied. Even yet
our southwestern range country exhibits a tendency toward very
large outfits to which is attached a peon type of existence.
. Exact records of the Spanish and Mexican land grants in most
instances have not been preserved. It is known that certain grants
date back as far as 1731 (87) in Texas 26 and 1773 in California.
It is probable that commitments of more or less legal nature were
made long before those dates. The period between the passage
of the Mexican land law of 1824 and acquisition of the area by the
United States, however, accounts for the great majority of land
which passed to private ownership by this method.
The various treaties of acquisition recognized the legality of land
titles secured by prior grants. However, actual surveys of the land
were made in relatively few cases. Claims to title frequently over-
lapped, or were possessed by more than one individual. Evidence
of legal title often was lacking. Thus for many years, in the Gen-
eral Land Office and in the various courts, settlement of land claims
originating during Spanish or Mexican sovereignty was a major
function. The work of the Private Court of Claims, created in 1891
28 The Texas grants are further discussed on p. 230.
216 THE WESTERN RANGE
primarily to facilitate settlement of land claims originating out
of the Mexican Cession and the Gadsden Purchase, was completed
in 1894 (74)- The best available information indicates that there
were more than 1,100 valid grants in California, New Mexico, and
Arizona covering an area of more than 19 million acres.
Despite the fact that the average size of these grants was more
than 17,000 acres and many were very much larger, most of those
which are still used as range are in no better condition than the
average of privately owned range lands. Here and there an outfit
has realized the need for protecting the forage resource, but more
often the ranges have been as seriously overstocked and as badly
abused as on other private lands.
In contrast to the landed-aristocracy philosophy back of the Span-
ish and Mexican Land Grants, the public-land policy of the United
States has been based on the democratic philosophy that all citizens
should have an equal right to share in our land disposal. Small
units only of sufficient size to support one family have been the
objective. That the plan was successful in the humid agricultural
region of the East can hardly be questioned. Had our range-land
disposal legislation been so drawn and interpreted as truly to support
this principle, it is possible that much less of our range land would
have been so seriously depleted.
It is not the purpose of this report to trace through all of the land
legislation of this country. There have been approximately 5,000
laws so classified (161). Certain laws or groups of laws have, how-
ever, had such an important bearing on range depletion that some
special consideration of them seems essential.
THE HOMESTEAD LAWS
A land policy for the United States was first formulated by Alex-
ander Hamilton, who believed that the public lands, if sold in small
tracts to settlers, would furnish a very great source of revenue for
the Government. Although emphasis in the early land ordinances
was placed on the revenue feature (15J+, P- 637) there was very gen-
eral recognition that the price must be kept sufficiently low as to be
no hindrance to rapid colonization. Revenue, as a major factor in
land disposal, survived for only a short period, but the belief that
all lands should pass to private ownership in small tracts became
firmly fixed (74) • Laws designed to pass title direct to the settler
were made less restrictive with each change.
The basic homestead law was passed in 1862 prior to the settle-
ment of the semiarid range country west of Omaha, which was still
"the Indian country." To be sure gold had been discovered in Cali-
fornia, Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, and a flourishing agriculture
was growing up in the valleys around these camps. The missions
throughout the West had established themselves primarily on a basis
of irrigated crop agriculture and livestock husbandry. Yet settle-
ments were few and far between and the hardships of the Oregon
and Santa Fe Trails were too real to encourage any thought of
wholesale settlement. And then came the cattle.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 217
Herds, as discussed in another section, built up around the de-
mand for beef in the camps and for oxen to replace worn-out ani-
mals in the immigrant trains, expanded and made their owners
independent. Texas cattlemen, without a market for their surplus
stock after the Civil War, discovered the possibility of trailing to
better ranges to the north for fattening. In the span of a few
years almost the entire West was explored and stocked — over-
stocked— with cattle.
Many of the ranches experimented with crop raising around head-
quarters, mainly to winter the saddle stock and a few milch cows.
Gardens were grown. Far-sighted stockmen soon realized that ef-
fective control of their range was tied in with control of the avail-
able stock water. Legal possession was essential to permanence in
the right to use such key tracts. The 160-acre homestead law was
the best way out.
Even though one man could acquire only 160 acres under this law,
it was simple enough and not too questionable morally, to have a
cow hand file and prove up on another key tract while working for
the outfit. If he slept in the shack or sodhouse once in a while, had
an old stove and some tin dishes and left a worn-out shirt hanging
on a nail, it certainly was his home. There were plenty of cow
punchers and plenty of others who were glad to make a few dollars
by proving up on a claim. Then someone discovered that he had a
key tract and no legal obligation to transfer the title which he got
from the Government. So he "upped the price" and made a real
stake. Another, more ambitious, decided that with his homestead,
which included the only water for miles, he was a potential cow-
man and bought a few head of cattle. A new outfit was in the live-
stock business. Thus the principle of passing title to a sufficient
area to support a family was never applied in the range country
even from the beginning of settlement.
Gradually the news spread that there was opportunity in the
Plains country and the rush of homesteaders began. That the land
was ill suited to crop agriculture and that 160 acres would not sup-
port a family did not worry the settlers and apparently did not in-
fluence the administration of the law. Data segregating from the
rest of the United States the homestead history of the range States
are not available. However, the bulk of the lands in the tall-grass
prairies and eastward had passed to private ownership before 1870.
Thus table 40 and figure 61 give a fair indication of the rate of
homesteading in the semi arid West. The phenomenal increase in
acreage patented in the period beginning in 1913 was due to a lib-
eralization of the law which permitted proof to be made after 21
months of residence, instead of after 5 years. This was known as
the 3-year homestead law of 1912.
218
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 40. — Final homestead entries from passage of act to June 80, 1935 l
(commuted hamesteads not inchtded)
Fiscal year
Number
of entries
Area,
acres
Fiscal year
Number
of entries
Area,
acres
1868 _.
2,772
355, 086
1902
31 627
4 342 748
1869
3,965
504 302
1903
26 373
3 576 964
1870
4,041
519, 728
1904
23, 932
3 232 717
1871
5,087
629, 162
1905
24 621
3 419 387
1872
5 917
707 410
1906
25 546
3 526 749
1873 .
10, 311
1, 224, 891
1907
26' 485
3 740 568
1874
14,129
1, 585, 782
1908
29 636
4 242 711
1875
18,293
2, 068, 538
1909
25,510
3 699 467
1876
22, 530
2, 590, 553
1910
23 253
3 795 863
1877
19,900
2, 407, 828
1911
25, 908
4, 620, 197
1878
22,460
2, 662, 981
1912
24 326
4 306 069
1879..-
17, 391
2, 070, 842
1913
53, 252
10, 009, 285
1880
15, 441
1, 938, 235
1914
48, 724
9 291, 121
1881
15, 077
1, 928, 205
1915
37 343
7 180 982
1882
17, 174
2, 219, 454
1916
37, 958
7, 278, 281
1883
18, 998
2, 504, 415
1917
43 727
8 497 390
1884
21, 843
2 945 575
1918
41 319
8 236 438
1885 .
22, 066
3, 032, 679
1919
32, 623
6, 524, 760
1886
19, 356
2, 663, 532
1920
39 774
8 372 696
1887
19, 866
2, 749, 037
1921
33,889
7, 726, 740
1888
22, 413
3, 175, 401
1922
30 919
7 307 034
1889
25,549
3, 681, 709
1923 .
22,420
5, 594, 259
1890
28,080
4, 060, 593
1924
18,046
4 791,436
1891
27, 686
3 954 588
1925
14 675
4 048 911
1892
22, 822
3, 259, 897
1926
12, 244
3, 451, 106
1893
24, 204
3, 477, 232
1927
9 315
2 583,627
1894
20,544
2, 929, 947
1928
6,667
1, 815, 549
1895
20,922
2, 980, 809
1929
6,240
1, 700, 950
1896 -
20, 099
2, 790, 243
1930
4,973
1, 371, 073
1897
20,115
2, 778, 404
1931
4,848
1, 352, 861
1898
22, 281
3, 095, 018
1932
4,077
1,209,894
1899
22, 812
3, 134, 140
1933
3,066
906, 578
1900-.-
25, 286
3, 477, 843
1934.--
3,608
1, 123, 673
1901
37, 568
5, 241, 121
1935
4,902
1, 640, 393
i Data from U. S. Department of the Interior, General Land Office.
The use of water for irrigation at the mouth of mountain valleys
proved so successful that this scheme of crop production in the
semiarid region took gradual form. Where the cost of water diver-
sion was beyond the means of one settler, groups combined to share
the expense. From small beginnings this procedure has grown to
large proportions and the Federal Government now finances projects
through the Reclamation Service. That this development has been
the major contribution to permanent crop agriculture in the West is
generally recognized. Low-value, semiarid land, worthless except
for natural forage, has been converted through irrigation into some
of our most productive communities. To a large degree the success-
ful use of adjacent range lands is dependent upon the forage raised
in irrigated valleys. But there is a limit to the lands so situated that
irrigation is feasible or possible; and even more important, there is
a limit to the water available. There is little criticism against the
homestead laws as applied to lands on which irrigation was practical.
As stated above, only a small part of the western range States can
be irrigated (159). In Montana only 1.7 percent of the total land
area has been placed under irrigation and not more than 2.8 percent
can be so utilized. In Utah the corresponding percentages are 2.5
and 3.3. Even in California where the markets are close at hand
and the climate is such as to permit of raising semitropical fruits,
only 4.8 percent has been placed under irrigation to date.
And then someone discovered that dry-land farming was a possi-
bility, and that under the influence of favorable years these virgin
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
219
grasslands could be made to grow wheat. That it had taken nature
centuries to build up a few inches of fertile topsoil, that frequent
and severe drought would result in crop failure, that the "summer-
fallowing" practice was likely to facilitate wind erosion just as
much as moisture conservation — these facts were not realized. Mil-
lions of acres of excellent native grassland passed to private owner-
50
40
30
«. 20
8
1
1868 1873 1878 1883 1888 1893 1898 1903 1908 1913 1918 1923 1928
to to to to to to to to to to to to to
1872 1877 1882 1887 1892 1897 1902 1907 1912 1917 1922 1927 1932
FIGURE 61.— THE RISE AND FALL OF HOMESTEADING IN THE WEST.
Homesteading east of the short-grass country had already slackened by 1868. These
bars showing the acreage patented up to 1933 indicate, in the main, the sweep and
decline of range-land homesteading. The sharp advance in the 1913-17 period is
largely explained by the passage of the so-called Three-year Homestead Act of 1912.
ship under the homestead laws in a disastrous attempt to do what
nature would not permit. Other millions of acres were filed on and
broken up but were abandoned even before patent was issued. To-
day the semiarid West is dotted with abandoned shacks where a
worn-out tractor stands back of the fallen-down barn, witnessing
what has proved to be the crowning mistake of an attempt to force
low- value lands into private ownership for crop agriculture.
220 THE WESTERN KANGE
Since the effects of the homestead law on the range resource can-
not be segregated from the effects of all land-disposal laws, detailed
discussion will be reserved for later presentation; but this much
should be said here : The homestead law made no provision for ade-
quate classification of the land to determine its suitability for crop
agriculture. There is valid question whether this lack of a specific
mandate need have prevented such action, but in any event no means
was worked out by which waterholes and other key areas could be
withdrawn from entry as were the power sites jn the early part of
the twentieth century on the national forests. Also the income of
registers and receivers of land offices has been based largely on num-
ber of entries and acreage of land disposed of, thus further empha-
sizing disposal rather than sound principles of land use.
ENLARGED HOMESTEAD ACTS
Early in the settlement of the West it became apparent that the
160-acre homestead did not fit the climatic and soil conditions of
most of the semiarid region. President Grant visited the Mountain
States in 1875 and in his message to Congress in December of that
year (59) said:
In territory where cultivation of the soil can only be followed by irrigation,
and where irrigation is not practicable the lands can only be used as pastur-
age, and this only where stock can reach water — cannot be governed by the
laws as to entries as lands every acre of which is an independent estate of
itself. Land must be held in larger quantities to justify the expense of con-
ducting water upon it to make it fruitful or to justify utilizing it as pasturage.
Powell (107) in his report of 1878 recognized the fact that a large
acreage of irrigated land per individual was neither necessary or de-
sirable from the standpoint of western development. He was per-
haps the first to express the viewpoint that our land-disposal policy
must coordinate crop agriculture, water use, and grazing. His plan
contemplated group action for irrigation, provision for free use of
water for stock, and a large acreage (2,560-acre minimum) of range
land to round out an economic home unit.
In spite of the growing appreciation that crop agriculture was un-
suited to much of the West and that economic range use must be
substituted as the basis for land disposal, laws continued to pass
which encouraged passage of title to private ownership with little
regard to the area required, under proper use, to support a family.
The Kinkaid Act of 1904, restricted in application to the excel-
lent grazing country of western Nebraska was intended to main-
tain the fundamental principles of the homestead idea. The House
Public Land Committee (74) in recommending its passage said:
Increase in the area of homestead above that provided by the original
Homestead Law — made with the view of compensating the homesteader, in
a measure, in quantity of land for what the land lacks in quality and
productiveness.
Within 10 years after the passage of the act, which increased the
area of the homestead to 640 acres, practically all available lands
under the act had been entered. That this act did not accomplish the
purpose for which it was passed is established by the fact that much
of the land of the original "Kinkaiders", long since abandoned for
cropping, has been included in larger units for strictly range use.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 221
The Enlarged Homestead Act of 1909, originally restricted in ap-
plication to 9 States but later broadened to include 12, was even
less wisely conceived. In the first place the homestead size was
limited to 320 acres. It provided that one-fourth of the area be
cultivated, that residence be the same as on all homesteads, and that
none of the land be irrigable. Clearly the law was intended to in-
clude grazing lands, usually as pasturage for 160-acre homesteads
already occupied. Yet it placed a premium on dry-farming through
the requirement of cultivation. Although less than 3 million acres
was acquired under the provisions of this act, it had a bad effect
on range management in that it provided one more method for
breaking up into very small units grazing lands which could not
economically be so handled, and encouraged the plowing under of
good forage in order to get title to the land.
Irrigation was first made into a cooperative institution by the
Mormons under that able colonizer, Brigham Young. That special
legislation was required for this type of development was soon ap-
parent. The Commissioner of the General Land Office in his report
for 1875 (162) in discussing the application of this system to the
land, said:
For their reclamation a system necessarily expensive, because involving canals
or main ditches of great length and size, is required; and, hence, associated
capital must be called upon to furnish the means of success. But the security
for its repayment, even the inducement to furnish it, must be found in the
lands to be benefited.
The solution offered by this report was the public sale at the Gov-
ernment price of suitable lands west of the one hundredth meridian.
The first legislation passed specifically to advance irrigation agri-
culture was the Desert Land Act of 1877 (74) which provided for the
sale of 640 acres of land to a settler who would irrigate it within 3
years. Payment of 25 cents per acre was required at the time of
filing and $1 at the time final proof was made. Although less than
10 million acres have gone to patent under .this act, it has served as
another approach to misuse of the range. By making desert entries
only on the land which included water holes, stockmen could control
large tracts of range land for a period of 3 years at a very small
cost per acre. Thus, the acreage patented is no measure of the ex-
tent to which this law was used in the competition for control of
the range.
It is significant that ample provision to correct many of the abuses
which were prevalent under this law was made in 1888. At that
time a law was passed (74) which directed that all lands selected
as sites for reservoirs, canals, and ditches and all lands susceptible
of irrigation by such means be withdrawn from entry. Despite this
sweeping bit of legislation, no constructive action was taken to cor-
rect the situation.
THE GRAZING HOMESTEAD LAW
Shortly after the cattle boom of the eighties, farsighted men
began to realize that the range resource was not in fact inexhaustible.
Reports began to spread that the ranges were overcrowded and as a
result were being permanently damaged. In recognition of this,
President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 appointed a commission con-
222 THE WESTERN RANGE
sisting of W. A. Kichards, Commissioner of the General Land Office,
F. H. Newell, Chief Engineer of the Reclamation Service, and Gif-
ford Pinchot, Forester of the Department of Agriculture, to make
an investigation, report upon conditions, and recommend such
changes as were needed in the land laws. The report of this com-
mission (146) submitted] by the President to Congress in 1905-6
clearly set forth what was happening :
The general lack of control in the use of public grazing lands has resulted,
naturally and inevitably, in overgrazing and the ruin of millions of acres of
otherwise valuable grazing territory. Lands useful for grazing are losing their
only capacity for productiveness, as, of course, they must when no legal control
is exercised.
Included in this report were the results of a study made by A. F.
Potter, who through extremely wide acquaintance with stockmen of
the West, was able to get an expression of opinion from some 1,400
stockmen well distributed over the range States. The preponderance
of the expressions were favorable to some sort of Federal adminis-
tration of grazing on the public domain. This coincided with the
views of the commission. They made such a recommendation and
strongly urged that the range lands be withdrawn from selection
under the homestead and desert homestead laws. No constructive
action was taken. On the contrary, by 1916 pressure became so
great that the most unfortunate of the land-disposal laws as applied
to range lands was enacted, the Grazing Homestead Act.
Instead of recognizing the similarity in principle between the
treatment required for timber lands and that required for low-value
range lands and providing a companion act to the Forest Reserve
Act passed in 1891, we clung to the private-ownership philosophy.
Bad as have been the effects of this law, there was within it one
provision subject to an interpretation which could have prevented
most of the difficulty :
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, on application or other-
wise, to designate as stock-raising lands subject to entry under this act, lands
the surface of which is, in his opinion, chiefly valuable for grazing and raising
forage crops, do not contain merchantable timber, are not susceptible of irri-
gation from any known source of water supply, and are of such character that
640 acres are reasonably required for the support of a family.
The actual interpretation which has been given the above clause
has been so completely at variance with that contemplated at the
time the law was passed that some discussion is essential. A study
of the facts has been made by Dr. E. A. Sherman, Assistant Chief.
United States Forest Service, who says :
Associate Forester Albert F. Potter, on December 9, 1916, while the measure
was in conference, called the attention of Assistant Secretary of the Interior
Finney to the above language, and suggested that the last clause be amended
to read, "and are of such character that 640 acres may reasonably be expected
to support a family." Mr. Finney reported that Secretary Lane (Interior)
approved the change, and, under instructions from Secretary Houston (Agri-
culture), Mr. Potter presented it to Congressman Scott Ferris, who called the
conferees together and secured favorable consideration of Mr. Potter's pro-
posal. All of the conferees were in favor of the amendment, but ruled that
it would be subject to a point of order, arid it was therefore not included.
Congressman William Kent, of California, opposed the measure in conference
because he was fearful that as worded it would permit the classification of all
lands which were not of a character on which a man could make a living on
less than 640 acres. This resulted in a conference with Assistant Secretaries
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 223
Finney and Vogelsang, Mr. Mahaffey, Forester H. S. Graves, and Associate
Forester Albert F. Potter. The representatives of the Department of the Inte-
rior contended that the Secretary of the Interior was given a wide discretion and
need designate "only such lands as in his opinion were suitable for the pur-
poses of the law", with the understanding that the lands to be designated
would be passed on by the United States Geological Survey and would be of
such a character that 640 acres "may reasonably be expected to support a
family." The measure was thereupon accepted by the representatives of the
Department of Agriculture. Mr. Kent withdrew his objection, and Secretary
of Agriculture Houston advised the President that :
"The Secretary of the Interior is required to designate the lands as 'stock-
raising lands' before they may be entered, and he can designate only such lands
'the surface of which is, in his opinion, chiefly valuable for grazing and raising
forage crops, do not contain merchantable timber, and are not susceptible of
irrigation from any known source of water supply, and are of such character
that 640 acres are reasonably required for the support of a family.' As I
interpret it, in order to designate such lands, the Secretary must of necessity
have a classification made. He cannot permit any applicant to secure a home-
stead in excess of 640 acres, and he must have reasonable assurance that the
640 acres applied for will be reasonably required for the support of a family.
I do not understand that there could be created under the act a homestead
of 640 acres on which the entryman might not reasonably expect to support
his family."
With the foregoing understanding, Secretary Houston raising no objection
to the approval of the measure as finally passed, it was signed by President
Wilson and became a law.
For a time the Geological Survey appears to have endeavored to adhere to
the requirement that in order to be classified as subject to entry under the
stockl-raising homestead law the land must be capable of supporting a family
on 640 acres and millions of acres were so classified, but political pressure
resulting in adverse rulings by the Department forced abandonment of the
policy for a rule-of-thumb requirement that the land be capable of supporting
not less than 30 head of cattle yearlong for each 640-acre entry. This was in
turn abandoned for the same reasons, and most anything short of absolute
desert was given stock-raising homestead classification. Testifying before the
House Oommittee on Public Lands, February 18, 1934, Congressman Taylor,
of Colorado, stated that up to June 30, 1933, 24,326,349 acres of land had
passed to patent, and an additional 124,669,640 acres had been classified and
designated as subject to the act.
The upshot of the whole matter was another outstanding example of a rea-
sonably good law unwisely and improvidently administered. The Department
of Agriculture had conceived the purpose of the bill to be the establishment
of "stock-raising homes" and not "stock-raising entries."
The extent to which the stock-raising homestead law has been used
is shown by tables 41 and 42. It is significant that of the more than
08 million acres entered under this law only approximately 26 mil-
lion acres have gone to patent and only about 14 million acres are
now pending. Thus nearly 28 million acres are represented by
entries which were abandoned before proof was made. The finan-
cial and spiritual toll exacted from tens of thousands of families that
were permitted to try a venture in which they were doomed to failure
is a convincing confutation of the theory, "Let the purchaser beware."
224
THE WESTERN RANGE
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UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
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226 THE WESTERN RANGE
LAND SCRIPT, MINERAL LAWS, AND OTHER ACTS
Although the various homestead laws account for the great bulk
of the land which has passed direct from the public domain to
Erivate ownership, many other methods to accomplish this purpose
ave been legalized. The issuance of script redeemable in land to
be taken from the public domain has not been uncommon. Eastern
States, not so fortunate as to contain public domain, and Texas, have
been issued land script to the extent of 7,830,000 acres to be selected
in public-land States for the support of education. Recognition of
the obligation which the Nation owes to soldiers of the various wars
has been met in part by the issuance of land script covering more
than 1.6 million acres of public lands (35} . These promises of lands
were made transferable and therefore soon found their way into the
channels of trade. During certain periods the buying and selling
of script assumed major proportions on the stock markets. It is
impossible to estimate the extent to which script was used in acquir-
ing range lands, but it is well known that a great part was gathered
in by timber companies as one means of bringing about the consolida-
tion of ownership of the choicest timberlands of the West.
Mineral and coal land disposal under the various laws had taken
less than 4 million acres by 1931. Although no objection is here
raised to the validity of encouraging the development of mining by
this method, it is unfortunate that the mining laws have at times
been used for purposes not intended under the laws. Too often
mining claims of questionable mineral value have been located in
the heart of range units or to control the use of water. Thus proper
range management has been made more difficult. Coordinated use
of our natural resources, under which the needs of the mines and
miners are given full consideration, would seem to be a more logical
principle to follow than that of passing to patent or control a graz-
ing resource in which the patentee presumably is only incidentally
interested.
Many methods other than those discussed have been used to pass
to private ownership title to range lands, but the principles involved
and the effects on range depletion are similar. The Timber Culture
Acts, the Timber and Stone Act, the Carey Reclamation Act, and
the various cash-sale provisions are a few that should be listed even
though space limitations prevent discussion.
RAILROAD AND OTHER INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT GRANTS
Perhaps the main deterrent to rapid settlement and development
of the West was the lack of adequate transportation facilities. The
idea that the disposal of public lands should aid in solving this
problem was early conceived. Precedent for the use on a large scale
of the proceeds from the sale of public lands is first found in the
Enabling Act of the State of Ohio in 1802 (74) . It provided that
5 percent of the gross receipts from such sales should be made avail-
able and used for the building of public roads. Following this,
grants for transportation development were numerous. Some were
made to States with stipulations as to how the money was to be
used, but more frequently the grant was direct to the railroad as a
subsidy to aid in financing the original construction. This phase
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
227
of our land-disposal policy reached its peak in the sixties when the
grants to the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, Northern Pacific, Santa
Fe, and Southern Pacific were consummated. The magnificence of
these subsidies soon raised so much opposition that the practice was
stopped with the exception of relatively minor grants for the pur-
pose of financing a few branch lines, connecting links, and to aid in
consolidations. Altogether, as shown in table 43, more than 101 mil-
lion acres were granted to States and corporations to advance rail-
road building in the range country. Figure 62 presents graphically
their extent and location.
TABLE 43. — Status of railroad grants
State
Original
grants >
Present »
holding rail-
roads 8
Additional
grants to
States for
railroad
and wagon
roads *
Arizona
Acres
8 419 505
Acres
5 3 770 896
Acres
California
11,481,459
2 008, 461
Colorado
3,826,881
34,350
Idaho
1, 015, 479
570, 148
Kansas
7, 849, 592
4,735
4, 634, 237
Montana
14, 342, 510
3, 516, 441
Nebraska...
7, 657, 737
18,611
Nevada
4,988,075
4, 440, 078
New Mexico
3, 464, 049
« 1, 437, 521
North Dakota
10, 301, 912
16, 354
Oklahoma
3,397
Oregon
3, 489, 499
192, 559
2, 583, 890
South Dakota 7__
4,953
Texas 8
136, 194
Utah
2, 277, 839
673, 281
Washington
9, 930, 543
1, 531, 596
Wyoming
5, 104, 786
938, 603
Total
94 149 866
19,298 178
7 218 127
» Bureau of Railway Economics unpublished data as of June 30, 1933.
» From unpublished data of Interstate Commerce Commission, 1934.
3 Exclusive of rights-of-way and urban property.
4 These lands were transferred to construction companies or railroads.
« Includes 3,755,581 acres transferred to holding company for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Co.
« Includes 1,431,641 acres transferred to holding company for Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Co.
7 Small acreage included with North Dakota.
8 The railroad lands in Texas were direct grants by the State— total grants to railroads, 32,153,878 acres
While the stipulations differed in the various grants, the usual pro-
cedure was to include all of the alternate sections for a distance vary-
ing as between grants from 10 to 40 miles on each side of the right-of-
way. Provision was made for the selection of "lieu lands", generally
within 10 miles beyond this limit, in lieu of lands which had already
been settled, were mineral in character, or for any other reason were
not available to the railroad company. That the railroad grants
accomplished their major purpose cannot be questioned. Transcon-
tinental lines were financed and pushed through much sooner than
they otherwise would have been.
In the final analysis these grants were intended to encourage
passage of title to private owners in small tracts similar to the home-
stead law. Stipulations were usually included which controlled the
price at which the land could be offered for sale and which required
that it be offered by a certain specified time after construction.
Table 43 shows that in the range States more than 19 million acres
still remain in railroad ownership.
228
THE WESTERN RANGE
It is significant that in the administration of the railroad -grant
laws the Federal land policy of passing of title to private ownership
is clearly shown. Vigorous protests by the Forest Service against
further patenting of land to the Northern Pacific Co. resulted in the
passage of Public Resolution 24, Sixty-eighth Congress, on June 5,
National Forests and Purchase Units
National Parks and Monuments
^ Indian Reservations
Established Grazing Districts
External limits of railroad and
other road grants
\
FIGURE 62.— HOW RAILROAD GRANTS COMPLICATED THE OWNERSHIP PATTERN.
The various railroad land grants of alternate sections within the limits shown above
included an extremely large acreage of grazing lands. Federal reservations and with-
drawals later overlapped these grants. These grants still complicate the ownership
pattern.
1924. Among other provisions this resolution created a joint com-
mittee of both Houses of Congress to make a complete investigation
of the Northern Pacific land grants. Hearings were held and the
complete record was submitted to the Attorney General for analysis
and advice. His findings (H*7) are summarized:
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 229
A consideration of the foregoing suggestions indicates that not only does no
deficiency exist in the grants but that the company has already received approxi-
mately 5 million acres of public land which it has not earned and is not
entitled to.
Final disposition of this case is still in the courts.
Naturally the land-disposal policy of the railroads has had two
purposes: (1) The conversion of land into money and (2) the set-
tlement at the most rapid rate of the territory served. High-pressure
salesmanship was resorted to in furtherance of these aims. Certain
roads even went so far as to open land offices in the capitals of
Europe. Here was developed the land agents' viewpoint on a whole-
sale basis. Colonization schemes destined to failure were undertaken
on a grand scale. The ease of irrigation, and the profits to be had
from dry-land farming were presented in glowing terms. Thus
many more millions of acres of typical range land, unsuited to crop
agriculture, were put to the plow.
Fortunately the sales policy of most of those roads which still have
lands to sell has reversed. It is now realized that, in the long run.
the railroads can benefit only as the individual purchaser is success-
ful. Misuse of the land is discouraged. Purchasers destined to fail-
ure because of inexperience are not solicited, and prices are set at the
figure at which the purchaser has a chance to retain title. In most
instances the railroads are in the vanguard of the movement to bring
about some orderly plan of action which will insure stable and profit-
able use of the land. However, the checkerboard pattern of the rail-
road holdings makes difficult any sort of blocking up of range-land
tenure in tracts of sufficient size to permit of economical livestock
operations. In the establishment of one large grazing district in
Montana, however, the Northern Pacific Co. took a leading part.
Their own holdings, which were a large percentage of the total, were
turned in to the grazing association at a very low rental price.
A part of the railroad lands are given relatively good management.
Those sections which fall within the national forests usually can be
used only in connection with adjoining lands. Thus they are usually
leased by a national-forest permittee who turns them in to the Forest
Service for a permit to graze the number of stock equivalent to the
determined grazing capacity of the land.
Not much can be said in favor of the range practice required on
most of the railroad lands. It consists simply in leasing the lands
without restrictions as to numbers of stock to be grazed or the season
during which the land may be so used. Presumably it is assumed
that the lessor will protect the resource. As a usual practice the
lands are first offered to the logical local user or users. If the lease
is not thus taken up, the lands are then offered to the highest bidder,
who more often than not secured the land for less than the annual
taxes assessed against it. Much of the land is never leased at all,
because it is so badly intermingled with other holdings that it can-
not be protected from trespass.
230 THE WESTERN RANGE
STATUS OF LANDS REMAINING IN PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
TEXAS LANDS
The treaty of annexation of Texas, signed in 1845, provided, as
already stated, that the new State would retain title to the lands
within its borders. Thus we have an example of land disposal on a
large scale by the individual State. That the land-ownership pattern
of Texas is extremely complicated can be more readily understood if
it is realized that previous to its annexation by the United States it
had been, first, a Spanish Province, then in 1820 a part of the "State
of Coahuila and Texas" under the Government of Mexico, and lastly,
a sovereign independent nation.
The first title to land in Texas probably dates back to 1731 under
a grant from Spain (87). From that date until 1819 various large
and small grants were made by the Spanish Kings. In most instances
the motive back of the grant was the extension of the Catholic religion
and the colonization of the province. Although permanent settle-
ments through Spanish efforts seem to have been a failure, it is esti-
mated that private title to about 10 million acres of land 27 goes back
to this source.
The Mexican influence on land ownership in Texas is very pro-
nounced. It too was designed to encourage settlement and perpetuate
the ruling religion, but it did set up a land-disposal scheme which had
some merit. Under it, with certain restrictions as to residence and
citizenship, an area of land varying from 177 acres of tillable land to
4,251 acres of grazing land could be secured by one individual. In
addition, anyone who would organize a colony of 100 or more families
received a liberal reward in land. Though many minor changes and
modifications were made, the system thus started remained in effect
until 1845 as the land policy of the Republic of Texas. Under the
system more than 16 million acres passed to private ownership.
Texas, as a State, as shown in the following tabulation (14%) > nas
used almost every known device except the lottery system in its
public-land disposal.
Acres
Grants by Spain and Mexico 26,268,000
State university 2, 221, 400
Kiamasha Road 27, 000
To build State capitol 3,050,000
County courthouses , 640
San Jacinto Veterans 1,169,382
Disabled Confederates 1, 979, 852
Homestead donations (preemption) 4,847,136
Internal improvements , 4, 061, 000
Counties for schools 4,229,166
Headright and bounties 36,876,492
Colonies___ - 4, 494, 806
Railroads 32, 153, 878
Asylums , 400, 000
Public free schools 42, 400, 556
Total— 164,191,308
27 Some estimates are as high as 20 million acres (87).
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 231
Free homesteading has been encouraged, soldiers have been reim-
bursed in land and in land script, construction companies were paid
in land for the construction of public buildings, large quantities
were donated for internal improvements, it has been sold outright
as a means of raising revenue, and an enormous area has been used
to endow the public schools and institutions of higher education.
Thus the land history of Texas is similar to that of the Nation ex-
cept that more consideration was given to the relationship of size
to intended use. That private range lands in Texas have been de-
pleted to substantially the same degree as have those in adjoining
States is evidence that size is not the only answer to the proper
use of such a resource. Current profits, inadequate finances, and
failure to consider the forage as a renewable resource seem to have
controlled here as elsewhere.
Those lands which remain in the various forms of State or in-
stitutional ownership are managed primarily for the greatest cur-
rent revenue. No adequate provision has been made in leases and
use agreements to perpetuate watershed values of the range forage
resource at a permanent high level. Cents per acre rather carrying
capacity has controlled in large measure.
In all of the range States except Texas, State ownership of land
largely goes back to Federal grants for educational purposes or for
public or semipublic improvements.
STATE GRANTS
That the use of public lands for educational purposes and for essen.
tial public improvements was a laudable purpose has been demon-
strated. Our common-school system, our land-grant colleges, and
our other favored institutions have benefited greatly. That they
might have benefited more in the long run under a plan of land
management which would have protected the range resource for
both present and future generations seems equally clear.
Proposals that a portion of the public lands or of the receipts from
the sale of public lands be distributed to the States probably orig-
inated in 1824 when a proposal was made that money from the sale
of lands be invested, and the interest therefrom be distributed
among the States. The following year a congressional committee
was appointed to investigate the possibilities of such a plan with
special reference to the possibility of using the money to finance a
public-school system and of the effect of such a plan on the coloniza-
tion and development of the United States (74) • The committee
report was favorable, but the question was destined to occupy the
middle of the political stage many years before the principle wa?
finally accepted.
It is not the purpose of this report to present the detailed history
of Federal grants to the States of lands or money from the sale of
lands. The system was followed and has done much to foster the
cause of education and public improvements. Table 44 shows the
extent of such grants and present ownership in the western range
States.
232 THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 44. — State land status for 17 entire Western States
State
Original
grants
Total
present
ownership
Range land
owned
Range land
leased
Administrative agency of State
lands
Arizona
Acres
10,542,113
Acres
8 356 497
Acres
8 242 497
Acres
7 380 000
California
8, 427, 077
1, 040, 594
448 360
20 499
Division of State lands depart*
Colorado
4,433 538
3 182 102
2 925 737
2 426 165
ment of finance.
Idaho
3, 632, 157
2 881 285
1 291 338
1 798 964
sioners.
Kansas
3, 606, 910
71 302
71 302
sioner 's department .
Montana
5, 869, 618
4 861 998
4 219 998
2 982 985
Nebraska ...
3, 458, 711
1 724 143
1 574 143
1 i 601 549
investments.
Nevada
2, 723, 647
126, 587
117, 587
2 None
and buildings.
New Mexico
12, 732, 694
12, 697, 651
12, 186, 651
3 10 700 000
register.
Commissioner of public lands
North Dakota
3, 163, 551
1,855 055
1 556 901
1 173 432
Oklahoma
3 095 760
989 880
469 880
137 641
school lands.
Oregon
4,375 429
611 927
540 767
29 524
office.
South Dakota
3, 434, 203
3 931 059
3 356 346
2 623 427
its department.
Texas—.
22,425 903
19 964 436
2 270 285
lie lands.
General Land Office of Texas
Utah
7, 464, 276
2 800 000
2 297 300
287 861
Washington
3, 044, 471
2, 230, 796
1, 196 976
468 522
State land commissioner of pub-
Wyoming
4,138 569
3 567 242
3 222 242
3 050 058
lic lands.
and farm loans.
Total
84 142 724
73 354 021
63 682 461
36 950 912
1 Probably includes agricultural lands.
» No State lands leased; all are sold outright or on long-time payment plan.
J Includes small percentage of agricultural lands.
As a result of apparent fraud in disposing of land in the earlier
grants, most of the grants, or the State constitutions, placed limita-
tions on freedom of action in disposing of the land. Obviously the
main reason back of the restrictions was a fear that State govern-
ments would be dominated by political influence and as a result the
lands would be disposed of as political or personal favors and at a
fraction of their true value. Thus, in most grants, stipulations as
to minimum selling prices and restrictions on sales are to be found.
In several States the minimum price was so high in relation to
resource values that it prevented disposal of any but the best land.
Apparently the price set was based on the belief that all. land would
ultimately command a substantial price and on a desire to obtain
all that the traffic would bear in State land disposal.
Regardless of the justification from other standpoints, range man-
agement on State lands has been seriously hampered by the scat-
tered geographic distribution of the land over the States. The usual
custom has been to designate sections 16 and 36 of each township
as common-school land. In Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah sections
2 and 32 were also so designated. Only in Nevada was this problem
avoided; here, in lieu of a grant of named sections, the State ulti-
mately was given the right to select from any unreserved and unap-
propriated public lands 2 million acres for common-school purposes
This distribution in small units, rather than in tracts of sufficient
size for efficient administration, would go far toward preventing the
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 233
application of sound range management principles even if those re-
sponsible for the handling of such lands so desired.
The State of Nevada based the location of its school-land selections
on salability, especially as influenced by the control of water, which
was especially vital to the use of the range. Thus in this instance
the State land furnished the key to the use of an immense area of
surrounding public domain, and this explains in part why such a
large part of Nevada's common-school land has passed to private
ownership.
Attempts at consolidation of State land in the public-land States
of the West in blocks large enough for management have been made
with more or less success. The greatest aid to this endeavor has been
the various lieu selection acts. Title to land granted the States did
not pass until the lands were surveyed and the survey accepted.
Meanwhile the State grant might be defeated as to a given area
either by settlement prior to survey or by inclusion in some reserva-
tion in which case title did not pass so long as the land was reserved.
To meet such situations equitably the States were given the right to
select an equal area of nonmineral, unreserved and unoccupied,
surveyed public land anywhere within the same State, regardless of
value. This provision proved of great value, especially where na-
tional forest reservations embodied great areas of unsurveyed, r^ugh
mountain land. The theoretical school sections were promptly Bur-
rendered, and the best of the remaining unreserved public domain
was selected instead.
In 1907, in order to facilitate and encourage consolidation and
management of State lands, the Forest Service agreed to eliminate
certain agreed-upon areas from the national forests for selection
by the various States on an "equal area — equal value" exchange
basis. In some States part or most of the selected land was primarily
valuable for grazing. This was true in part in Montana, Idaho,
Washington, Wyoming, New Mexico, and other States.
Likewise, in a few States exchanges of patented State lands within
the national forests for other unreserved lands of equal area and
value have aided materially in consolidation. That other States
have not followed a similar course results in part from a lack of
permissive legislation.
It should be added that in most grants, other than those for the
support of the common schools, the States were permitted to select
the specified area from any unreserved and unappropriated public
domain. This was true with the large grants for the various State
colleges and universities and for many internal improvements. In
many instances these selections were made in blocks of large size.
In many of the States it has been the practice to invest the receipts
from the sale or lease of State land in real-estate mortgages. A
large part of these investments were made during the dry-farm
boom and were for amounts which we now know were in excess
of the actual worth of the land. Although foreclosures have been
avoided when possible, some States have by this means acquired a
substantial additional acreage of denuded lands and are destined
to acquire much more. Here again the land distribution is in small
units and serves to add to the confusing pattern of State land
ownership.
234 THE WESTERN RANGE
The handling of State range land has been based almost wholly
on a desire to secure the maximum current revenue.28 Sale of the
maximum acreage has been encouraged without regard for the fitness
of the land for private ownership. Leasing has usually been with
a view to securing the greatest possible price. No provision has been
made for the protection of the range and watershed resources
through wise management. A search through the last annual land
report of all the range States fails to reveal any mention of the
condition of the lands. Without exception they are mere financial
statements made up largely of figures of acreages and dollars. The
measure of success seems to be based entirely on the ability of those
responsible for the lands to obtain the maximum revenue from lease
or sale regardless of the effect on the resource.
In every case responsibility for administering State lands rests
with those whose major function is revenue collection. In no in-
stance has the land been turned over to an agricultural agency.
Surprising as it may seem, even where a qualified State agricultural
department is provided it has been permitted to have no part in
State land management other than that which could be exerted
indirectly through influence. Clearly, in the interest of good land
management, the administration of State grazing land should be
closely tied in with the interrelated agricultural interests. Sound
land-use management requires this action.
To sum up: The distribution pattern of State lands is of such
character as to complicate any attempts at improved range manage-
ment. No provision at all to control numbers of stock or season of
use is exercised in leases. Supervision of the use of the land is
not provided. The responsible agency is primarily interested in
securing the greatest current revenue through sales or leases. The
services of existing qualified agencies such as the State agricultural
departments, the agricultural experiment stations, and the Exten-
sion Service are little used.
INDIAN LANDS
The land ownership problem within the western Indian reserva-
tions, especially those of the Northwest, is little if any less compli-
cated than with the land in other forms of ownership or control.
Until very recently the objective in Indian administration seems
to have been to lead or force the Indian to accept the same mode
of living and standards of civilization that have proved to be satis-
factory to the white man. This has included the principle of indi-
vidual, private ownership of land as the ultimate solution. As a
result, five distinct classes of land titles are intermingled on most
of the reservations. This situation is fully discussed in another sec-
tion (pp. 278-285) and therefore will not be repeated here. It should
be said, however, that the resultant land-ownership pattern has been
one of the major obstacles to the practice of proper range manage-
ment on Indian lands. Progress in recent years has been encourag-
ing and should be more rapid under the broad authority vested in
the Interior Department by the Wheeler-Howard Act of 1932.
28 This paragraph refers entirely to range lands and shopld not bo construed as n
criticism of the management of State forests and parks, which in some instances is very
creditable.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
REMAINING PUBLIC DOMAIN
Beginning late in the nineteenth century, a few farsighted indi-
viduals began to realize that for certain lands private ownership
was neither feasible nor desirable. As a result, partly owing to
public pressure but more largely to the political astuteness of cer-
tain conservation leaders, a large area of the remaining public do-
main has been withdrawn from all forms of entry and reserved
for public management. Chief among these reservations were those
creating the national forests, national parks and monuments, and
power-site withdrawals. Also a great area has been reserved for
such special purposes as Indian reservations, reclamation sites, stock
driveways, and mineral reservations. Although there is a material
amount of overlapping as between various reserves, their general
extent, as recorded in the 1934 report of the Secretary of the In-
terior, is shown in the following partial tabulation : 29
Acres
National forests 138, 120, 193
National parks and monuments 8, 692, 196
Indian reservations (estimated net) 56,676,535
Military, naval, and similar reservations (approximately) 1,000,000
Bird and game refuges 1,512,371
Stock driveways 9, 771, 386
Reclamation withdrawals 20, 208, 621
Water power reserves 5,147,654
As a residue from the combined effects of the land-disposal policy
on the one hand and the reservation policy on the other, we still had,
on July 1, 1934, 165,695,479 acres of unappropriated and unreserved
public domain, of which 162,188,181 acres were in the range country.
For the purposes of this section grazing districts as shown in table
45 are considered to be public domain.
TABLE 45. — Public domain areas in the range States, included and not included
in "grazing districts"
State
Included
in grazing
districts
Not in-
eluded in
grazing
districts
Total,
public
domain
Arizona _. .
1,000 acres
1,505
1,000 acres
11,568
1,000 acres
13, 073
California
1,872
13,804
15, 676
Colorado
6,459
576
7 035
Idaho
4,182
5,885
10, 067
Montana
3,892
2,018
5 910
Nevada . . .
7,985
43, 194
51, 179
New Mexico
8,776
2,873
11,649
Oregon
9 561
679
10 240
Utah
20,045
1,908
21, 953
Washington
710
710
Wyoming .. ._
1,246
12, 825
14, 071
Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas-
625
625
Total
65, 523
96,665
162, 188
On June 28, 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act, which provides for
some degree of public control of grazing on 80 million acres of the
public domain, became a law. Although the restriction in acreage
29 Fig. 62 shows the location and extent of some of the more important classes of
federally owned or controlled land.
236 THE WESTERN RANGE
still leaves more than 85 million acres of Federal public land with-
out provision for control, it seems inevitable that some sort of man-
agement will be provided very shortly. This can be provided
through amendment to the Grazing Act to include the entire area,
through a division of the area between this and other agencies in the
interest of consolidation and conservation, or through a combination
of these measures. Consideration of the good and bad features of
the Grazing Act will be found elsewhere. It is necessary here to
present the effects on the land pattern which this immense acreage
of predominating range land exerts and to describe in some detail
its condition and the reasons therefor.
The public domain of the West is made up of remnants left after
careful culling by many agencies. The homestead, desert home-
stead, and grazing homestead laws eliminated much of the best of
the natural range area. State, railroad, and other grants, with their
provision for lieu selection of indemnity land, still further reduced
the average quality. The national forests, Indian reservations, re-
clamation withdrawals, and so forth, each have absorbed grazing
land better than that which remained. Clear] y the residue of
165,695,479 acres consists of the least desirable of the original 1,442,-
220,320 acres. Certainly, it includes the poorest 10 percent of the
lands west of the Mississippi River.
Not only is the land poor in quality but its geographic distribu-
tion often makes administration difficult. Except those semidesert,
or extremely low-value areas where there was little demand for the
land, it is scattered in units too small to administer separately and
badly intermingled with other ownerships. As has already been
empnasized, absolute lack of proprietorship on the public domain
resulted in the worst kind of abuse through overgrazing and use
during improper seasons. Wherever there is any public domain
used as open range, it is in virtually every instance in a more ad-
vanced state of depletion than similar land under any other form of
ownership.
Along with forage depletion has gone, more often than not, the
top soil, and along with it the soil fertility. The forage and soil
resource is generally so badly deteriorated that the land has lost
not only its grazing values but also its ability to regulate run-off
and prevent erosion.
REASONS FOR DELAY IN ADOPTING A CONSTRUCTIVE RANGE-LAND POLICY
Failure to correct the evils of our Federal range-land policy is
hard to understand. As early as 1878, Lieutenant Powell, then
Chief of the Geological Survey, after a rather thorough field exam-
ination, prepared a report on the necessity for revising our land
laws to fit conditions in the semiarid West. His report (107} , with
remarkably clear foresight, pointed the way for future action. He
recognized the desirability of combining range and irrigable land,
of the protection of water holes for widest possible use, and of pre-
venting nonirrigable lands from going into crop agriculture. No
action was taken.
In 1898 the American National Livestock Association, well know-
ing that the range resource was being destroyed, passed resolutions
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 237
asking that the public domain be given protection from overgraz-
ing. No action was taken.
In 1903 President Theodore Koosevelt, fresh from his experiences
in Dakota and Montana, realizing keenly the impaired condition of
the range resource, appointed a Public Land Commission to investi-
gate and report. This Commission after much testimony and travel
reported not only what would happen but what had already hap-
pened. It recommended, as suggested by many progressive stock-
men, that the remaining public domain be withdrawn from entry
and placed under Federal administration with provision for home-
steading after careful land classification. No constructive action
was taken. In due time additional laws were passed designed to
facilitate rather than prevent further damage.
In 1930 President Hoover appointed the Committee on the Con-
servation and Administration of the Public Domain. Another
study was made and another recommendation for placing the public
domain under administration. In this instance primary emphasis
was placed on transfer of the land to the States where they so de-
sired and where proof of ability and intention to protect the re-
source could be given. Mineral rights were to be reserved to the
Federal Government. In those States not caring to assume the
heavy responsibility of rehabilitating these run-down lands, admin-
istration by the Federal Government was recommended. Also the
remaining forest lands, high-value watershed lands, and units de-
sired to block out administrative divisions, were to be added to tha
existing national forests. It is probably fortunate that several of
the recommendations of this report wrere never translated into law.
Finally in 1935 after a half century of delay and failure to act
realistically on the public-domain range problem, and after untold
damage to the range and to the livestock industry had resulted, less
than half of the remaining public domain was placed in the way of
administration. The remainder, together with nearly 25 million
acres of unperfected homestead claims, remains a "no man's land."
Why the delays ? The reasons are obscure and may be conflicting.
First of all has been the ever-present fear of oppressive bureaucracy.
The idea of placing in the hands of some governmental agency the
final say as to the use of lands which heretofore have been used
without hindrance, was distasteful to many of the pioneer American
stockmen. Perhaps in no business has the spirit of rugged individ-
ualism been more strongly displayed. From the days of the Texas
trail herds on down to the present depression, the business has been
highly individualistic. The motto has been, "Let the best man
win." As a result, the stockmen were unable to unite on a solution
behind which they could mass their full strength.
The State rights argument has likewise been used to prevent
action. Even though the management of State lands more often
than not has been on a political basis with no apparent regard for
the permanence of the resource, there has been a strong following
for transfer of the public domain to the States. That, in their
present depleted condition, management and rehabilitation of these
lands would constitute a liability rather than an asset, seems not
to have been realized. The fact that some receipts were being
obtained from lands already in State ownership easily led to the
238 THE WESTERN RANGE
assumption that the ownership of the public-domain lands would
increase this revenue. Partisan politics, especially within some of
the States concerned, has made good use of the State rights principle
at the expense of the perpetuation of the range and watershed
resource.
Another feature in the delay has been a possible advantage which
the stockmen have seen in keeping the situation such as to afford
an opportunity to play one form of Federal control against another.
That this is true is evidenced by the situation today when the division
of Federal responsibility between two departments is being so used.
Always, of course, the question of the fee to be charged for use
of the range has played a part far beyond its true importance.
The cost to the stockman of equitable fees, as against insecurity in
the use of range, losses from overstocking of ranges, and damage
which results from erosion and unregulated stream flow from such
areas, should be quickly accepted as the only reasonable alternative.
Transcending all of these, however, has been the lack of inspired,
aggressive leadership. Reports have been made, laws have been
drafted and recommended ; action to correct abuses of existing laws
has awaited definite and inescapable mandate from Congress; but
the "punch" required to convert reports and recommendations into
established policy has not materialized. Always the solution has
been diluted by the tradition for land disposal and passage of title
to private ownership. Had there been inspired leadership, such as
Gifford Pinchot displayed in putting into effect a constructive con-
servation program for forest lands, the unreasonable delays could
not have continued. Partisan politics, adherence to outmoded prec-
edents, suspicions of bureaucracy, pure inertia, unwillingnesses to
face facts, and lack of appreciation of the worth of the forage re-
source— none of these nor all together would have been able to
obstruct, as they have done, so obvious a course of action on behalf
of the public welfare, if such leadership had developed.
THE EFFECTS OF PAST LAND POLICY
EFFECT ON PRESENT RANGE-LAND OWNERSHIP
The ownership pattern of range lands within the region where
the raising of range livestock must be the major industry has grad-
ually become exceedingly complex and confusing. In general, our
land-disposal laws were so drawn as to keep ownership units to a
small size and, except in the case of the national forests, to make
no provision for continuing use of sufficient additional range to
support a home unit. That one purpose back of this type of legis-
lation was the prevention of monopoly in land ownership and con-
trol in no way alleviates the situation which we now face.
The only laws which were so framed as to facilitate the control
of range land in units of manageable size were those providing for
certain Federal reservations and those which authorized the ex-
change of private or State lands within these reservations for lands
in the unreserved public domain. The national forests, and more
recently the grazing districts, have for one purpose the consolida-
tion of ownership for better management. Yet, even in this type
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY
239
of ownership, management is made more difficult by the titles which
passed from the Government before the creation of the reserves.
Railroad grant lands, State school sections, submarginal homesteads,
and other private land within the boundaries present a problem, the
solution of which will not be easy.
A considerable part of the public domain coming within the graz-
ing districts is in such small tracts and so badly scattered that real
constructive range management can be had only when and if the
adjoining areas can be included under the same administration. Fig-
ure 62 gives a generalized picture of the area included within the
various Federal reservations and on which grazing use can be con-
trolled in varying degrees. Actually, much of these areas is still in
the patchwork pattern shown in figures 63 and 64.
FIGURE 63.— OWNERSHIP PATTERN IN
COLORADO.
Characteristic of many a western rang
county, the actual pattern is even more
varied than here indicated, since "Cor-
porate groups", "Nonresident", and so
on, may include several different owners
in any one block of land .so labeled.
FIGURE 64.— RANGE OWNERSHIP IN
MONTANA.
Such "crazy quilt" patterns of ownership as
shown in this small area in Montana and
in fig. 63 encourage and accelerate range
depletion by offering a serious handicap
to good range management. It is obvious
that units of ownership or control and of
management practice must bear some
relation to each other.
Through the operation of lieu selections, States and railroads in
selecting indemnity lands have been enabled to effect a considerable
amount of consolidation. A large part of these selections, however,
has been in regions where timber values were high and where graz-
ing values were correspondingly low if not entirely absent.
240 THE WESTERN KANGE
Outside the boundaries of the Federal reservations we find a con-
fusing ownership picture. It has been well described by R. R. Renne,
of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station in a recently written
unpublished manuscript. The description is typical of much of the
eastern two-thirds of that State.
Thousands of tracts owned by individuals residing all over the United
States ; thousands of small farm units interspersed among grazing areas and
other ownerships ; a large portion of the remaining public domain occurring in
isolated, disconnected tracts; state holdings scattered, usually including the
sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of each township; thousands of acres of
county land, taken through continued tax delinquency, and occurring haphaz-
ardly in small units; railroad lands making a checkerboard effect in some
areas, being much more scattered in others ; insurance company lands scat-
tered thinly here and there ; investment and mortgage company holdings strung
out in a disorderly fashion, representing parcels out of larger blocks not yet
sold; lands foreclosed by land banks and commercial banks occurring at
random here and there * * * such is the pattern of ownership established
under a policy of "laissez faire", free individualism, and planless settlement.
With such a pattern economic instability, overgrazing, and general misuse of
the land occurs.
The above description by one who has spent several years in an
intensive study of the land-ownership problem in our western range
country is not overdrawn. Figures 63 and 64 present graphically
the ownership pattern of typical areas in Montana and Colorado.
Actually the ownership in these areas is immeasurably more compli-
cated than here shown, as is evident in the necessary grouping on
these maps of several ownerships in certain of the classes. For ex-
ample, Federal ownership may include land under the jurisdiction
of several departments or bureaus ; corporate ownership includes not
only railroad land but that of all banks, investment houses, insur-
ance companies, and all other incorporated entities; and private
ownership is widely distributed among both residents and nonresi-
dents. Need more be said concerning the seriousness of multiplicity
of ownership in its effect on range management in a predominantly
range country where it takes from 3 to 15 acres to support one cow
for a month?
Our land policy has had equally serious effects on the resultant
land use. Generally the land-disposal laws have not provided for
adequate land classification before settlement was permitted or title
was passed. It is true that certain laws, specifically the stock-rais-
ing homestead law, did so provide, but in practice the classification
was in no sense adequate and did not protect the settlers from an
uneconomic land selection. Land-hungry applicants, encouraged by
publicity departments of railroads, real-estate locators, and local
chambers of commerce — with or without previous farm or ranch
experience — were permitted to select at random their quota of land.
Title was allowed to pass with little regard to the suitability of the
land for the purpose intended.
To say that the application of the 160-acre homestead law to the
nonirrigable lands of the semiarid West was disastrous is no over-
statement. The dry-farm wheat belt of the short-grass plains was
settled under this law. The effect of the World War with its result-
ant peak prices for wheat and other farm commodities, coming dur-
ing the period of settlement, has been described in an earlier section.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 241
At this time, too, the dry-farm region was favored with more than
normal precipitation for a period of several years. As one result
of this coincidence literally millions of acres of the best natural
range was turned under with the plow. Then the war ended.
Wheat surpluses built up. The dry years came on. A large part
of these wheatlands that once were range were abandoned.
While no reliable statistics as to the extent of abandonment are
available, it has been estimated that more than 20 million acres is
not too high a figure. In Montana, according to unpublished esti-
mates, nearly 5 million acres, and in Washington more than 1 mil-
lion acres of such land present a major problem. Homesteads pat-
ented under the various laws, State lands leased for agricultural
use, railroad lands, and homesteads not yet proved up on, all suffered
in varying degree.
The dry-farm wheat lands of many parts of the West today pre-
sent a discouraging picture. Immense areas which once supported
a fine stand of grama and buffalo grass now grow little except worth-
less weeds. Literally thousands of homes, cheaply constructed to
be sure, stand dilapidated and abandoned. Other hundreds of
homes still occupied plainly show a degree of poverty seldom
equaled in our city slums. Schoolhouses are abandoned, or if still
used, show the results of an attempt to continue public education
at a cost per pupil greatly exceeding that in the more prosperous
communities. Local governments are deeply involved in financial
difficulties, if not in fact actually bankrupt. It is thus that we pay
the price of a land settlement that ignores sound planning in the
use of land.
The extent of tax delinquency in the range area is not now known.
Comparable figures for the entire area have not been collected. Sam-
ple range counties in several States are, however, available to indi-
cate the extent to which ownership has reverted to the public. Ac-
cording to R. R. Renne, the county governments of Montana in
1934 owned 2,526,349 acres (excluding lands within the boundaries
of incorporated municipalities, highways, rights-of-way, etc.) Sev-
eral times as much was delinquent 3 or more years and subject to tax
deed, but because of recent tax moratorium legislation title had not
been perfected.
Table 46 indicates for Montana, for which tax data are available,
the building up of delinquency during recent years. Although it is
impossible to segregate natural range from cropland, it is well known
that delinquency is worst on dry-farm wheatland which has
been abandoned for cropping. The counties in which de-
linquency is most prevalent are those in which range livestock
and dry farming have predominated. In the final analysis, tax
delinquency of abandoned dry-farm land is a range problem. It is
only through rehabilitation for range use that these lands can again
be made to produce satisfactorily. It is significant that even dur-
ing the prosperous years delinquency was serious. In 1928, as shown
in table 47, more than 15 percent of the range and cropland was so
listed and by 1933 this had increased to more than 40 percent.
64946— 3(
242 THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 46. — Progress of tax delinquency on range and cropland in Montana
VAAr
I
)elinquent-'
Lands
Properties
Owners
1928...
Acres
53, 043, 690
Percent
15.11
Number
30, 253
Number
25 373
1929
63 452 362
17 11
34 179
28 176
1930
53 305 504
22 86
44 252
34 650
1931
52, 871, 826
35.44
62,224
46 878
1932 . ..
52 313 339
41 49
72 801
54 558
1933
52 341 924
40 24
69 682
52 388
TABLE 47. — Tax delinquency, by years, in one Colorado county
Land
Year levied
Irrigated
Grazing
Dry farm
Meadow
Coal
Total de-
linquent
1932...
Acres
234,023
Acres
685, 371
Acres
499, 323
Acres
3,280
Acres
892
Acres
1, 422, 889
1931
206 075
635 404
449 903
3 142
805
1,295 329
1930
166 824
523 977
383 112
3 240
780
1 077 933
1929
159 657
539 907
367, 755
2,691
733
1, 070, 743
1928 1__
144,294
522, 342
350, 392
3,138
699
1,020,865
Total
910 873
2 907,001
2,050 485
15, 491
3,909
5, 887, 759
Average
182 175
581 400
410 097
3 098
782
1. 177. 552
Percent
15.5
49.4
34.8
0.2
0.1
100. 0
i Even prior to the depression, tax delinquency in this county was a serious problem, as it was in adjoining
States also.
That the above situation is not peculiar to any one range State
is shown in the Colorado yearbook for 1933-34 on page 277. In
1932 nearly 61 percent of the privately owned farm and ranch land
(approximately 21,760,000 acres) was delinquent for general prop-
erty taxes. In 1928 the percentage of delinquency was only 30.4
percent 'and the acreage involved was 10,679,034 acres. That delin-
guency in this instance was worst on grazing land and dry-farm lands
is shown by table 47, which is based on information for one typical
range county. It is significant that 49.4 percent of the delinquency
is on range land, and 34.8 percent is on dry-farm land which should
have remained in grass, while only 15.5 percent is on irrigated crop
land. Thus 84.2 percent of the tax delinquency in this county is on
land for which grazing would seem to be the highest use.
The tax delinquency situation is likewise serious in the range live-
stock counties of eastern Oregon. As of March 1, 1934, 12 eastern
Oregon counties in which the range industry is predominant or co-
dominant with lumbering, owned 674,450 acres of land. Abandon-
ment of land to the counties for unpaid taxes was far less in arable
agricultural counties than in the grazing counties. In three range
counties the acreage of land on which taxes were delinquent 3 or more
3'ears, but which had not gone to county ownership, increased from
187,393 acres in 1928 to 1,092,731 acres in 1933. Although an exact
division between range and submarginal farm land is not possible,
the delinquency situation is known to be very serious for both classes
of land. While additional data from sample plot studies in other
States are available, those given are sufficient to establish the fact
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 243
that on range land and especially on abandoned dry -land tax delin-
quency is a serious problem. Probably the latter class of land is in
greatest distress.
The period of rapid homesteading and expansion of wheat produc-
tion brought large increases in population. Towns were organized ;
school districts were created ; counties were divided ; road and high-
way districts came into being ; new local taxing bodies were initiated
on every hand. Thus there developed a local government pattern
designed to serve a relatively dense population. That it was expen-
sive mattered little during the boom days. Bond issues were easy
to float. Today, with the population reduced in number (Montana
suffered 'a 20-percent reduction in the number of farm units between
1920 and 1930) and with a full realization that, after all, the land
was intended for grass, the problem of developing a suitable local
government is acute.
The need for high-quality, efficient government is immeasurably
increased by the economic difficulties now facing the range counties.
The tax base upon which to finance good government is decreasing
and with each additional tax abandonment the loan on those still
paying becomes heavier. The inclination to "let the county have
the land" spreads to owners of better and better land. The solution
does not rest in providing "cheaper" government but in providing
better and more efficient government.
Part of the answer may lie in consolidations of small govern-
mental units and in careful long-time planning and rehabilitation.
Besides focusing the attention of the community on the problem of
good government, consolidation should, througli reduced overhead,
lower the costs, although it must not be forgotten that it will not
reduce the combined bonded indebtedness of the units consolidated.
Thus, through elimination of some of the local governments, there
is a definite possibility that the functions of government may be
better performed and at less cost.
Within this picture of tax delinquency one other important factor
requires especial consideration. In most of the States lands upon
which taxes are unpaid ultimately pass to the counties or remain in
the twilight zone of no ownership until sold. Hence we are building
up in the range country a "new public domain." Too often, under
pressure for increased county revenue, and in some instances in
accordance with State laws, these lands are sold to the highest bidder,
only to revert again for nonpayment of taxes when the new owner
realizes their true worth. Thus, these lands shift between county
and private ownership without regard for their income-producing
value and in a status to encourage improper use. It is obvious that
these lands are submarginal for private ownership in the use to
which they have been put. It is equally clear that under present
conditions the counties cannot afford to own them. Much range land
has been depleted to the point where it is now unable to carry its
share of the cost of government. The abandoned crop land, although
it was no doubt once first-quality range, has come back to public
ownership with the forage cover destroyed by plowing and now
supporting a sparse stand of vegetation of low value for grazing in
place of the original fine perennial grasses.
That revegetation by natural means will require an excessive period
of time is shown by a recent (unpublished) study by E. W. Nelson
244
THE WESTERN RANGE
of Montana University Forest School. Table 48, which is taken from
his report, shows that during the first 5 years after abandonment
85.7 percent of the cover consisted of worthless and unpalatable
species. Only 7 percent was grass. Even 16 or more years after
abandonment it was found that more than 29 percent of the cover
was made up of unpalatable species, with only 45.4 percent in the
grass group. It should be noticed, further, that only 3.4 percent of
this grass cover was blue grama, whereas on adjacent unbroken grass-
lands 36 percent of the vegetative cover is accounted for by this most
excellent species.
TABLE 48. — Occurrence of native species on various types of land in Wheatland
County, Mont.
GRASSES AND GRASSLIKE PLANTS
Species
Scientific name
Native
grass-
land
Abandoned plowed land
1-5 years
6-10 years
11-15
years
16 years
and more
Blue gnvma
Bouteloua gracilis
Percent
36.0
7.8
12.5
4.0
(0
3.0
13.0
Percent
0
6.0
1.0
0
0
0
(')
Percent
2.0
12.0
13.5
1.0
<\0
1.0
Percent
3.0
12.0
20.0
2.0
(\o
2.0
Percent
3.4
18.0
16.0
*J
2.3
Bluestem
Agropyron smithiL
Needle and thread
Stipa comata
June grass
Koeleria cristata..
Native bluegrass
Poa spp
O ther grasses
Dryland sedges
Carexspp
PERENNIAL AND BIENNIAL WEEDS
Palatable
0
4.6
1.6
11.8
3.1
13.1
5.4
8.0
2.2
10.2
Unpalatable
ANNUAL WEEDS
Russian thistle
Salsola kali
2.0
3.2
70.0
2.3
26.0
4.2
16.0
2.4
12.0
1.0
Other annuals . . —
BROWSE
Silver sage -.
Artemisia frigida
8.0
2.3
2.6
1.0
5.7
1.6
0
0
13.8
5.1
1.2
0
18.3
6.9
(0
0
17.2
6.0
3.7
1.0
Snake weed *
Gutierrezia sarothrae —
Phlox muscoides
Phlox »
Cactus
Opuntia polyacantha...
Total. ..
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Less than 0.5 percent.
» Considered half shrubs.
Nelson's conclusions as to rate of natural rehabilitation of plowed
and abandoned dry farms are substantiated by those reached by
Shantz (126) from a study in Colorado in 1911. In the Escalante
Valley in southwestern Utah, George Stewart found that the rate of
recovery of lands last plowed in 1913 was very much slower than
that determined by Nelson in Montana.
It is seriously questioned whether private owners can profitably
hold a class of land which shows so little improvement even after
many years of abandonment from cropping. Its rehabilitation
within a reasonable period seems generally to be dependent on arti-
ficial reseeding. Just how private owners and underfinanced coun-
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 245
ties can undertake a wholesale program of artificial reseeding in a
region where the climate makes the undertaking extremely hazard-
ous and until the costs of such treatment can be reduced to much
less than the value of the land so treated has yet to be answered.
The problem for the rehabilitation of badly depleted range land
and the restoration of abandoned dry farm land seems to be one
for a strong unit of the Government to undertake.
EFFECT ON THE RANGE RESOURCE
The complex ownership pattern of range land which has been
built up and the deterioration and destruction of the range resource
which has accompanied this process presents a major problem to
the livestock industry, dependent communities, the States, and the
Nation. As is shown in discussing integrated agriculture, crop
farming and range use are inseparable parts of the agriculture of
the Western States. The extent to which either use is successful
depends in large part on the degree to which the other can be made
to contribute toward it. Clearly close coordination is essential to
the permanent and continuous prosperity of the integrated
agriculture.
Coordination in use is equally essential to the conservation of the
high public values which much of this land carries. High-value
watersheds, critical erosion areas, tracts badly needed for recrea-
tional use, and key areas for game use have been passed to private
ownership or abusively used without regard for their need for these
special services.
One of the essential features of sustained-yield management is se-
curity in the right to use the forage resource which may properly be
harvested from the land. That such security is impossible under an
ownership pattern such as has been previously described seems clear.
One small area sufficient for even 150 head of cattle or a small band
of sheep may be divided in ownership between so many individuals,
corporations, and agencies that planning for future use is impos-
sible. The logical user of the range is never sure that some less de-
pendent competitor will not legally invade his range through pur-
chase or lease of part of the area. Also, the situation which now
exists lends encouragement to the "coyote sheep herder", who, by the
lease of small, widely separated areas, combined with his equal right
to use such public domain as may remain, feeds his flocks in trespass
on areas which have been held for special seasonal use, or which pur-
posely have been lightly grazed as a range rehabilitation measure.
Thus the usual result is to consider only the present and get the last
blade of grass every year. Under such treatment range depletion has
been serious and will continue.
The effect of dry farming on the range resource has already been
discussed. The native range forage has been destroyed and has been
replaced by plant species of little or no forage value. Natural re-
habilitation will be extremely slow. Unfortunately, these dry farm
lands are often intermingled with unbroken range lands, thus reduc-
ing the average carrying capacity of entire units to an extremely
low level. Ownership is widely distributed, and tax delinquency is
most serious. Thus, in regions where unsuccessful dry farming has
been practiced, the problem of range rehabilitation is particularly
246 THE WESTERN RANGE
difficult and is made more complicated by the land-ownership situa-
tion which exists.
One of the most unfortunate results of the land policy which has
been followed in the West is the extent to which it has encouraged
overinvestment in land, and in turn abuse of the range. As home-
stead entries were allowed and patents were issued the stockman
who had previously used the range borrowed from the banks to
buy put the so-called settlers and gave a mortgage on his enlarged
holdings as security. The increase in owned range did not increase
the area or productiveness of the range unit which he had previously
used free of charge as public lands. To meet taxes and interest
payments on the enlarged ownership, the stockman usually found
it necessary to increase the size of his flock or herd. The result, al-
most inevitably, has been overgrazing and range depletion.
Under the conditions which have been described it is to be expected
that ranges generally have been depleted. The extent to which
depletion has gone under the various forms of ownership and con-
trol should be one guide to future action. It is significant that in
every major forage type the national-forest ranges are now in better
condition than those under any other form of control. At the other
extreme, as might be expected, is the public domain, where no
administration has been given to range use.
THE PROBLEMS WHICH ARISE FROM LAND OWNERSHIP
The tangled and illogical ownership pattern which has arisen
from the lack of constructive land policy as previously shown, has
had and still has a serious influence on the perpetuation of the
range resource. Four problems stand out as the major features
which require solution.
SIMPLIFICATION OF OWNERSHIP PATTERN
Clearly, such intermingling of ownerships as is illustrated by
figures 63 and 64 is too great a handicap on the development of
good range management. The situation is made immeasurably more
acute by the fact that a very high percentage of the lands is held
by absentee owners who have no personal interest in the community
welfare other than that of obtaining a return on their investment.
Another large segment of potential range land widely diffused
in ownership has been effectively lifted out of production by an
unsuccessful attempt to grow dry-farm wheat. The economic re-
habilitation of such land for productive use depends in large part
on assurance for future good management of the property. Simpli-
fication of the pattern will be one incentive to better treatment.
State legislation to facilitate consolidation in some form of public
ownership, the formation of cooperative grazing districts for ad-
ministration of certain units, and active participation by the Re-
settlement Administration of the Federal Government should all be
considered as possible aids to the solution of this problem. A more
logical ownership pattern is fundamental to permanent range
rehabilitation and maintenance.
UNSUITABLE LAND POLICY 247
DIVISION INTO ECONOMIC UNITS
The distribution of the grazing resource in such a way as to avoid
monopolistic tendencies, without dividing it up in such small units
as to destroy its social value, is another major problem. Ideally and
ultimately the range resource will probably contribute most if made
to support the maximum number of satisfactory home units. This
does not necessarily mean individual ownership of sufficient ranch
and range property to support the number of stock required to meet
this objective. The system of distribution of grazing privileges in
effect on the national forests offers one solution. Under this system
dependency of the outfit on the use of range forage, the commensur-
ability of owned land on which supplemental feeds are raised or
which is used as winter range, and the number of stock owned each
are considered.
The livestock requirements for an economic unit will vary greatly.
In regions where range livestock is the sole means of support, the
ideal family unit may call for about 150 to 200 head of cattle or a
small band of sheep. Where diversified farming is practiced, pro-
vision to graze only a few head of stock may be essential to supple-
ment the other farm income. In certain regions where successful
management is contingent on running a large outfit it may be en-
tirely proper to recognize such ownership. Always the effect of
size of outfit on the cost of producing meat, wool, and hides must
be given fair consideration. The controlling principle in each de-
cision should be the support of the maximum number of people at
an acceptable standard of living. If this objective can be ap-
proached, the cost of rebuilding the depleted ranges can be justified.
TAXATION
One of the problems of range-land ownership is that of taxation.
The extent of tax delinquency in the range country establishes the
fact that, in their present run-down condition, much range land
cannot carry the load. It is significant that, generally, on those
properties where good range management has been practiced the
taxes have been paid. Certainly a part of the solution of the range-
land tax problem rests on rehabilitation for maximum production,
but the ranges are not yet rehabilitated and taxes are payable each
year.
Eange lands must, as a matter of course, pay their full share of
the cost of good government. Their failure to do so in recent years
is so greatly influenced by the effects of the lack of good manage-
ment and by the delinquency of intermingled lands improperly used
for crop agriculture that thoroughly reliable conclusions are impos-
sible. It seems probable that the taxes on these lands are dispropor-
tionally high in terms of real income value. This much is clear. A
comprehensive analysis of the tax problem on the range area should
be undertaken, and in the meantime serious consideration should be
given to the possibilities of revamping the local government organi-
zation to fit the population pattern which exists. Certainly some
means must be found to prevent range lands from being given the
abusive treatment commonly accorded to tax delinquent or reverted
property.
248 THE WESTERN RANGE
RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESTORATION
Finally, regardless of who owns the land, full recognition must
be given to the fact that range forage is an agricultural crop. That
this fact has not been appreciated is evident. A large part of fed-
erally owned range lands are administered outside the Department
of Agriculture. State and county lands have been administered by
agencies whose primary responsibility is revenue collection, and the
State agricultural services have used little if any. Private lands, in
most instances, have been "mined" rather than cropped for forage.
Until such time as the natural laws of crop production and plant
growth are followed in range management, restoration is not to be
expected.
Correction of the bad range-management practices will be aided
by placing responsibility for range restoration with those agencies
engaged in the solution of agricultural problems. Not only is this
true for Federal and State lands but for large tracts in corporate
ownership as well.
RANGE CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION
By C. L. FORSLING, Director, Appalachian Forest Experiment Station; FBED P.
CRONEMILLER, Assistant Regional Forester, California Region; PERCY E.
MEIJS, Forester, Northern Region; AENOLD R. STANDING, Range Examiner,
Intermountain Region ; AJLVA A. SIMPSON, Associate Director, Plains Shelter-
belt; and REX KING, Assistant Regional Forester, Southwestern Region
The western range picture is not entirely unfavorable. There are
areas on which action has been taken or is in course of being taken,
to stop depletion, improve existing conditions, and stabilize the use
of the range. In the national forests is found the greatest single
attempt to turn back the tide of depletion and to undertake planned
use of the resources. Progress is being made on the Indian reserva-
tions. Action has been started in the grazing districts on 66 million
acres of what until recently was open public domain. Here and
there in the West are found privately owned range lands which have
been carefully utilized and the forage resources wisely conserved.
These instances of deliberate management are guideposts pointing
the way toward a sounder range livestock agriculture.
THE NATIONAL FORESTS
Of the present area of approximately 133,875,000 acres of feder-
ally owned land in the national forests of the western range States,
about 82,538,000 acres, or 62 percent, of the total is used for grazing
of domestic livestock. Upon these lands approximately 1,400,000
cattle, 30,000 horses, and 6,152,000 sheep and 9,000 goats are grazed
regularly during several months of each year.30 These permitted
livestock, which represent 12 percent of all the cattle and 23 percent
of all the sheep in the 11 western States, are owned by more than
25,000 farmers, settlers, and ranchers, most of whom reside in or
near the forests.
The national forests represent the initial effort of the Federal
Government to undertake on a major scale the management of land
resources which it was in the general interest to retain in public
ownership. Extensive areas of the range which was included had
already been seriously depleted by the free-for-all use which had
gone on for several decades prior to the establishment of an admin-
istrative agency. The situation in many respects was not unlike
that on the open public domain today. The mad scramble for range
and the competition between the large livestock operator who had
preempted the open range and the home builder who was endeavor-
ing to get a start was at the expense of the grazing resources and
the orderly development of struggling new communities.
Although the guiding motive in the establishment of the national
forests was the conservation of timber and the protection of water-
30 Exclusive of calves under 6 months and of lambs. The average grazing season for
cattle is 5.7 months, for horses 5.5 months, for sheep 3.3 months, and for goats 5.7
months.
249
250
THE WESTERN RANGE
sheds,31 conservation of the other resources was implied, and the
forage crops produced on them have received equal consideration in
protection, development, and use along with all other resources.
The basic aim in the management of these lands has been to de-
velop sustained yield and to make all of the resources contribute
in the fullest degree, consistent with the broader public needs, to
the sound social and economic development of the dependent popu-
lation. On the whole, it was an attempt toward planned use of
land and a challenge to the laissez-faire doctrine in land occupa-
tion and use in the United States.
Today, after 30 years of administration under the Department
of Agriculture, not all of the national-forest ranges have been re-
stored to their virgin capacity, but real progress has been made.
Wholesale depletion has been checked and marked recovery is the
rule. The national-forest ranges, on the whole, as shown in table
49, are in approximately 70 percent of virgin condition. This fig-
ure compares favorably with figures elsewhere presented — of 33
percent of virgin condition on the grazing districts and public
domain and 49 percent on private range lands.
TABLE 49. — Degree of depletion of virgin range in plant types on the national
forests
Moder-
Mate-
Severe
Extreme
Plant type
Total
area 1
ate de-
pletion
(0-25
rial de-
pletion
(26-50
deple-
tion
(51-75
deple-
tion
(76-100
Average
deple-
tion
per-
per-
per-
per-
cent)
cent)
cent)
cent)
1,000
acres
Percent
Percent
Percent
Percent
Percent
Tall grass .
202
100
12
Short grass
993
40
48
12
30
Pacific bunchgrass
1,714
29
46
25
37
Semidesert grass
1,636
3
49
29
19
53
Sagebrush-grass
3,637
11
68
20
1
40
Southern desert shrub
98
51
8
41
60
Salt-desert shrub.
366
49
49
2
26
Pifion-juniper
13,811
25
41
30
4
41
Woodland-chaparral
712
2
70
28
44
Open forests
64,785
55
37
7
1
26
Total and average
87, 954
46.5
40.0
12. 0
1.5
30
i Includes acres of usable range closed to grazing for various purposes.
Earlier presentation of trends of depletion has shown that dur-
ing the past 30 years the average trend has been one of improvement
on 77 percent of the national forest range area and on only 5 per-
cent has there been an appreciable decline. During the last 5 years,
however, owing to drought and depression, the improvement trend
has been offset by a slightly downward trend on 19 percent of the
area. The net improvement may be summarized in one figure for
the period from 1910 to 1934 — forage production on the present
usable range on the national forests has increased 19 percent.32
81 For a discussion of the timber resources and watershed values in the national forests,
see A National Plan for American Forestry (154) , PP. 173, 298.
82 The number of livestock grazed on the national forests in terms of animal months
of use was actually reduced about 7 percent between 1910 and 1934. However, during
that same period a net area of approximately 10,000,000 acres, mostly grazing land, has
been excluded from within the national forests. Approximately 2,250,000 acres, most of
it the very best grazing land, has been alienated under the Forest Homestead Act of
June 11, 1906. Grazing capacity amounting to an equivalent of approximately 2,000,000
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 251
The net social and economic benefits which have been derived
from the policy of administration of the national forests, are more
difficult to appraise in specific terms. Nevertheless the benefits have
been positive and real. Almost as many livestock are grazed and
as many dependent stock growers use the range now as a quarter of
a century ago. Forage on national-forest range is more dependable
than on any other class of land. Uses for other purposes than for
grazing have greatly increased. National-forest ranges to a large
degree have been correlated with other classes of agricultural land.
It is proposed to review briefly the circumstances and vital forces
which led to the establishment of the national forests and the initial
aims and objectives of administration; describe briefly the action
taken to implement these aims and objectives and to appraise the net
results and existing problems. Such an analysis of accomplishments
in the initial experiment with Federal land management may be
of significance in further developing a program for future action
on all publicly owned range lands.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS
The initial approach to conservation of the range resources was
an outgrowth of the concern over the depletion of forests and injury
to watersheds. Alarm over forest destruction as a national problem
was expressed as early as 1819 (77). There was, however, a long
delay before any positive action was taken. In the meantime, legis-
lation was directed principally toward disposal of land. The Sec-
retary of the Interior vainly requested appropriations with which
to enforce laws against illegal cutting of timber on the public do-
main. From 1878 to 1891 there was much debate in Congress over
Government timberlands, but no action was taken until the passage
of the act of March 3, 1891, which authorized setting apart forest
reserves by Executive order out of parts of the public domain
whether wholly or partly covered with timber. However, progress
was slow for several years after the enactment of this statute and
up to 1897, only 19 reservations had been set aside aggregating
18.933,280 acres in area.
Efforts were then somewhat stimulated following the report of
an investigation the Secretary of the Interior had requested the
National Academy of Sciences to make of publicly owned forest
lands. Among other things he asked that investigations be made
concerning the influence of forest upon climate, soil, and water con-
ditions. The report of representatives of the Academy dated May 1,
acres of range is reserved for use by game on the total of over 100 State and Federal
game preserves. The extension of tree growth on the 42,000,000 acres of grazed timber
land has reduced grazing capacity in an amount equivalent to the withdrawal from
grazing use of 4,000,000 acres of good grazing land. Approximately 4,000,000 acres of
usable range land have been actually closed to grazing between 1910 and 1934, in
the interest of watershed protection, game, recreational use, timber growth, and for other
purposes. Thus the total range area available to livestock has been reduced the equi-
valent of 22 percent during the 25-year period. Since the land eliminated or taken out
of use was slightly better than average in grazing capacity the area now being used, in
order to take care of the present number of stock, has increased 19 percent in grazing
capacity. This does not take into account the additional facts that there has been a
very large increase in number of game animals outside the game preserves; that in
there were only 75 lambs per hundred grown sheep grazed and now there are 95
lambs for each hundred grown sheep, that the number of calves under 6 months have
increased proportionally ; and that, due to improvement in breed and quality, the animals
are larger and heavier and therefore each animal now consumes more feed than
formerly.
252 THE WESTERN RANGE
1897, among other things recorded widespread and serious damage
to ranges and watersheds by unrestricted grazing (91 ) . By June 30,
1898, 30 reserves had been established including 40,719,474 acres.
Progress continued to be slow, however, for some years, and mean-
while much timber, range, and watershed land which should have
been retained in public ownership passed into private hands.
The fight for conservation took on real life in 1901 under the
leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot.
The issue was broadened into a fight for the protection of the in-
terests of the people against monopoly as well as for the conservation
of the resources. Big interests had shown their power to grab
natural resources, to monopolize business, and to control politics.
The situation with respect to grazing livestock on the range helped
to, stimulate action. At the opening of the twentieth century live-
stock production in the West was typically a public-lands industry.
It had grown great on free range. Severe competition for use of
the range had developed between cattlemen and sheepmen and be-
tween them and the homesteader. Nomadic flocks and herds from
distant wintering and breeding grounds increasingly swept the high
ranges. The "tramp stockman" moved from one region to another,
pressing in ahead of the local residents in a scramble to get the feed.
The homemaker was ground between the upper and the nether
millstones. The whole situation was precarious, chaotic, and in many
ways economically unsound. Many of the more powerful stockmen
sought ways to establish and perpetuate their monopoly of the
range. It all tended to retard settlement and community develop-
ment. To Roosevelt it was a question of a square deal and economic
freedom for the people of the West.
The Roosevelt principles gored the monopolistic ox, and the
opposition w^as expressed in pressure for eliminations of land from
the forest reserves and finally in the withdrawal of authority for
creating national forests by Executive order in most of the States.
For obvious reasons the powerful interests wished to retain freedom
from interference. Nevertheless, the fight against monopoly and
exploitation and for the protection of public interest for the "greatest
good to the greatest number in the long run" was partially successful.
During the time Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, 148
million acres were withdrawn for national forests, bringing the total
area reserved up to 194.5 million acres. This placed most of the
remaining public timberland and most of the more important water-
sheds of the West under Government control, and a positive system
of administration was initiated. However, the plan for national
ranges which Roosevelt had proposed in 1905 (111} failed to
materialize.
Regulated use of the forest reserves was not authorized until the
passage of the act of June 4, 1897. Under this law the first rules
and regulations were written which provided that —
The pasturing of livestock on the public lands in forest reservations will not
be interfered with, so long as it appears that injury is not being done to the
forest growth, and the rights of others are not thereby jeopardized.
The grazing of sheep, however, was prohibited in all forest reser-
vations, except in Oregon and Washington, where the "abundant
rainfall of the Cascade and Pacific coast ranges make rapid renewal
of herbage and undergrowth possible."
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 253
There was almost no development of conservation policies. The
major function of the General Land Office of the Department of the
Interior, which had most of the responsibility for the forest reserves,
was the administration of the homestead and other land-disposal
laws, a function hardly compatible with the development of a con-
servation policy or organization. The tenor of the manual of regu-
lations of April 12, 1902, for example, was that of legality and mini-
mum carrying out of the law. Officials of the Land Office in Wash-
ington had no first-hand knowledge of the reserves. Business was
largely handled from Washington and great delays were encountered.
The instructions to the public were that —
when the applicant fails to hear of his application in a reasonable time, say
30 days, he should address letters both to the Supervisor and to the Commis-
sioner of the General Land Office, Washington, D. C.
Due to limited authority and divided responsibility, the mechanics
of administration were seriously hampered by the resulting "red
tape" which greatly annoyed the people of the West who needed to
use the resources of the forest reserves.
Appointments to administrative positions on the forest reserves
under the Department of the Interior were principally political.
Not until December IT, 1904, through the efforts of the Society of
American Foresters and other organizations, was the personnel
placed under Civil Service. As would be expected under a system
of political appointments with no sense of security in office, low
salaries and little chance for promotion, well-qualified men were
discouraged from seeking employment (77).
There was no technical forest or range-management organization
except for a 3-year period beginning in 1901 when the Forestry
Division of the Department of the Interior was created. Its purpose
was to cooperate with the General Land Office in the administration
of the forest reserves. Since such a plan of organization was not
basically sound, hostility developed (28) and the entire technical
force resigned in 1903. With the exception of this group the con-
servation thought was entirely within the Bureau of Forestry in the
Department of Agriculture. There existed the anomalous situation
of forest administration in a division of one department and of all
the foresters in a bureau of another. President Roosevelt and the
Secretary of the Interior urged Congress to transfer the adminis-
tration of the forest reserves to the Bureau of Forestry in the
Department of Agriculture and this was accomplished by the act
of February 1, 1905. In 1907 the forest reserves were renamed the
"national forests."
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES IN ADMINISTRATION
The broad aims and objectives in the administration of the na-
tional forests were laid down by Secretary of Agriculture James
Wilson in a letter of February 1, 1905, to the Chief of the Forest
Service in which he said :
You will see to it that the water, wood, and forage of the reserves are con-
served and wisely used for the benefit of the home builder, first of all, upon
whom depends the best permanent use of lands and resources alike. * * *
All land is to be devoted to its most productive use for the permanent good of
the whole people and not for the temporary benefit of individuals or companies.
254 THE WESTEKN KANGE
All of the resources * * * are for use, and this use must be brought about
in a thoroughly prompt and businesslike manner, under such restrictions only
as will insure the permanence of these resources. The permanence of the re-
sources * * * is therefore indispensable to continued prosperity. *
The continued prosperity of the agricultural, lumbering, mining, and livestock
interests is directly dependent upon a permanent and accessible supply of water,
wood, and forage * * * (made available) under businesslike regulations
enforced with promptness, effectiveness, and common sense.
Local questions will be decided upon local grounds; the dominant industry
will be considered first, but with as little restriction to minor industries as
may be possible.
Regarding this letter it has been said (28) :
A careful perusal of the above is commended, not so much because of its
terse common sense as because of its continuous existence to the present
moment as the standing general orders under which the forest work of the
country has gone and still goes forward.
The administration of the national forests provides for the fol-
lowing :
1. Conservation and use. — Perpetuation of all of the resources
through wise use, protection, and development.
2. Multiple use. — Correlation in management and use of the differ-
ent resources in order to obtain the highest net benefits from the
combined resources of the land.
3. Equal opportunity. — Protection of the settler and home builder
against monopoly and unfair competition in the use of resources.
4. Integration with agriculture. — Relating the use of range and
other resources on the national forests to farm-grown forage crops,
range, and other agricultural resources in a manner to obtain the
highest benefits from the several classes of land.
5. Stability of use. — Safeguarding livestock agriculture by afford-
ing maximum stability in the use of the range resources, consistent
with the objects of the national forests.
6. Cooperation with users. — Provision for livestock growers, other
users, and local governments to have advisory voice in the administra-
tion of the national forests which they use.
7. Local administration. — A businesslike, decentralized, and techni-
cal administration designed and organized to settle local problems
according to local conditions without delay.
The first regulations incorporating these basic policies were put into
effect on July 1, 1905, except for an advisory voice, which came later.
The regulations have been modified from time to time to meet new
conditions, for clarification of purpose, and for better definition of
their application.
MULTIPLE USE OF RESOURCES
The national forests contain a variety of resources or values, includ-
ing timber, water, range forage, game, fishing, and recreation. Rarely
is there an instance where two or more of these values are not asso-
ciated on any given tract of land. Some one may be dominant but
others are nearly always present in an amount sufficient to require
consideration in land management. This association of resources in-
jects the necessity for "multiple use" management — or management
which will yield the highest social and economic benefit from all of the
resources combined. Accomplishment of multiple use is one of the
important objectives of national -forest land management. Obviously
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 255
its attainment involves due consideration for local and present-day
needs, as well as long-range planning to meet the future requirements.
For example, 43 million acres, or approximately half of the na-
tional-forest range, is forest land, where commercial timber produc-
tion will have to be the dominant use. The number of recreational
visitors to the western national forests have increased steadily from
more than 3 million in 1917 to over 38 million in 1934. The number of
deer, elk, moose, mountain sheep, antelope, bear, and other big game
animals on range lands in the national forests increased from 613,000
in 1914 to 1,084,000 in 1934 ; upland game birds and fur bearers also
have increased during this period.
Ordinarily multiple use has been accompanied with only minor
sacrifices in the use of any one resource. Exclusion of other uses is
unnecessary and undesirable except where the highest public good can
be attained in no other manner. Of the total usable area of 87,954,307
acres of range land in the national forests, only 1,410,928 acres, or 1.6
percent of the total usable acreage, has been closed to grazing for
highly intensive recreational use ; 2,829,441 acres, or 3.2 percent, has
been closed for game ranges; 821,156 acres, or 0.9 percent, for water-
shed protection ; 210,344 acres, or 0.2 percent, for protection of timber ;
and 144,329 acres, or 0.2 percent, for other purposes. The total ex-
cluded range amounts to only 6.1 percent of the total usable range
area. On the remaining 93.9 percent of land the various uses, includ-
ing grazing, are coordinated with each other.
One of the chief requirements in multiple-use management has
been to foresee the needs and gradually adjust the various uses to
meet them. Livestock seldom can be removed on short notice with-
out sacrifice by the dependent user. However, sudden adjustments
have rarely been necessary.
ADMINISTRATION OF RANGE USE
CONTACTS WITH THE USER
For prompt and efficient handling of business to promote the solu-
tion of local problems upon local grounds, the Forest Service is
organized on a basis of decentralized authority. Forest officers are
located among the people they serve in order to be constantly in
touch with local conditions. The actual job of administration of the
range and other resources rests in the forest supervisor and his
rangers assigned to each of the 105 national forests in the Western
States. The people in the local communities transact their business
with either the forest ranger or the forest supervisor. Only remote
users must deal by letter or by occasional contact. /'Our ranger" is
a term applied by many people in western communities in referring
to the Forest Service official with whom they deal.
The character of administration and technical nature of the work
emphasizes the need for a properly qualified personnel chosen and
trained for the duties they have to perform. Tractically all forest
officers are "career men" who have chosen some line of forestry work
as a life profession. Kecruited through the civil service, candi-
dates for examinations must show adequate training and experi-
ence in forest or range work. The education of the newly pledged
forest officer is further advanced by training schools, study courses,
256 THE WESTERN KANGE
assignments under senior officers qualified to develop younger men,
transfers from one type of job to another, and by experience on the
job. Assignment to range management is dependent upon aptitude
and special qualifications for the work.
Under national-forest policy, users are entitled to exercise freedom
in the use of the national forests in accordance with the established
rules and regulations, and to be heard on all matters affecting their
own or the public welfare. Through the free exchange of ideas most
problems are harmoniously settled on the ground.
In order further to facilitate dealing with various local problems,
the organization of national-forest users into associations is officially
recognized and encouraged. Advisory boards are elected by the as-
sociation membership and these receive notice of proposed action and
have an opportunity to be heard. Over TOO livestock associations
have been organized by users of national-forest ranges and many of
these local associations are affiliated with the State associations and
these, in turn, with national associations which deal with the Forest
Service on matters of State- and Nation-wide importance. Grazing
boards, created upon the request of the majority of a group of
national-forest users, receive suggestions and complaints regarding
the administration of grazing, investigate all facts relating thereto,
and assist, advise, and consult with forest officers on matters of
general interest to the permittees.
Range users, however, are usually outnumbered by others inter-
ested in watershed protection, recreation, wildlife, timber, mineral
development, and a variety of minor uses, upon which a substantial
part of the support of many communities is dependent. The people
so involved are as fully entitled to a voice in national-forest adminis-
tration as are the stockgrowers. Recognition of these interests is
also provided for in the national-forest regulations. Counsel and
assistance are also invited from city, county, and State governments
concerned either directly or indirectly with national-forest adminis-
tration.
With so many interests involved it becomes the task of the Forest
Service, as the public agency concerned, to harmonize conflicts and
arbitrate differences between groups or individuals. The Forest
Service also has the duty and the responsibility to protect the public
interest whenever there is difference of opinion regarding established
national-forest policy. Many of the latter cases arise out of the
inclination of some users to disregard the requirements for range
conservation in order to satisfy their immediate needs. In such
instances the Forest Service proceeds on the basis of the best infor-
mation available and, with due consideration of all the circumstances,
adopts the procedure which will lead in the direction of the "greatest
good to the greatest number in the long run."
It is the aim of the Forest Service always to settle locally all
matters submitted for consideration. However, appeal may be taken
successively from the decision of the forest ranger, forest supervisor,
regional forester, and Chief of the Forest Service to the Secretary
of Agriculture, with whom final regulatory authority rests.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 257
CHARGES FOR GRAZING USE
The collection of a reasonable fee for the use of national-forest
range is nothing more or less than the recognition of the common
business principle of paying for values received. The intrinsic
worth of the forage and the stability afforded the livestock agricul-
turist in the use of the range have definite values. Not to collect
fees from the range users would result in a subsidy to this group
as compared to the producer who operates on privately owned or
leased range or farm land. The collection of fees is also justified
as a means of offsetting the cost of administration and the construc-
tion of improvements on the range by the Government, both of which
directly benefit the range user. Nevertheless, almost continuous
pressure has been brought by the livestock interests using the range
to keep the fees as low as possible.
Collection of fees was first provided for by the grazing regulations
of July 1, 1906. The principle of competitive bidding was not
adopted because it was early recognized that to do so would be dis-
advantageous to the small operator and lead to instability in agricul-
ture. The minimum charge for summer grazing was first fixed at
5 to 8 cents per head for sheep and 20 to 35 cents for cattle and
horses. The regulation prescribing these fees provided that as the
conditions of the range improved and the demand for permits war-
ranted it, the charge for grazing would be increased gradually in
accordance with the advantages enjoyed by the permittees in the
different localities. The last increase followed a detailed appraisal
of national-forest ranges begun in 1921 to establish the fees on a
parity with commercial rates.
In this appraisal the rates paid on similar leased lands and the
cost of owning grazing land, all of which are determined more or
less by natural economic forces, were used as a base. Adjustments
in the base rates were made for factors affecting grazing value, such
as type of forage, topography, weights and losses of livestock, and
distance to market. The resultant charges proposed, therefore,
varied with the factors inherent in the range. After strong opposi-
tion to the general increase by stockmen, the Secretary of Agricul-
ture designated a stockman to review the appraisal who recom-
mended the increase to commercial basis less 25 percent. The Sec-
retary approved the recommendation and ruled that the increase in
fees be applied 25 percent a year beginning in 1928 and become
fully effective in 1931.
The extreme low prices of livestock in 1931, however, presented a
new problem and fees were readjusted to vary from year to year in
accordance with the market prices of livestock during the previous
year. If the basis is correct the average fee paid over a long period
should approximately equal the adjusted commercial rate. Under
this readjustment the fees paid into the United States Treasury for
grazing on the national forests amounted to an average of $1,359,730
per annum during the 5-year period ending June 30, 1935. Twenty-
five percent of the fees are paid to the States in which they are
collected, for road and school purposes, and an additional 10 per-
cent was spent for the construction of roads and trails in the
national forests.
64946—36 18
258 THE WESTERN RANGE
DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF RANGE MANAGEMENT
In order to maintain the basic resource and accomplish the high-
est degree of sustained use of range forage, the Forest Service ap-
plies the best known principles and practices of range management.
To do so is in the interest of the stockman because it maintains the
basic resource upon which livestock production is dependent. It
substitutes the policy of stability in the long run for the former
practice of exploitation of the resources for immediate gains.
Originally, the individual owner and the Forest Service started
even in their attempts at range management — both had to depend
on "rule-of-thumb." Meager consideration had previously been
given to range management in the United States or elsewhere. Little
was known except in the most general way, for example, about the
relative value for grazing of the various native range-plant species,
their ability to withstand grazing, their requirements for growth
and reproduction, the circumstances under which best to use them,
the ability of the soil to produce them, and all the other factors
which together determine grazing capacity, proper season of use,
adaptability of the range to different classes of stock, requirements
for sustaining the production of forage, how to maintain the stabil-
ity and fertility of the soil, and how to maintain desirable conditions
of stream flow. Basic knowledge of this character was essential to
determine how best to use and maintain the range. It was apparent
also that a higher sustained grazing capacity of the range could be
attained if there could be developed and applied in a practicable and
skillful way a better adjustment of grazing to the natural biological
laws governing plant growth, securing a more even distribution of
livestock, and a better utilization of the forage.
Various steps were taken to meet this need for a more scientific
range management. The assistance and advice of experts in the
other Bureaus of the Department of Agriculture were enlisted. Ad-
ministrative officers of the Forest Service began to make investiga-
tions and to build on their experience. Stockmen were called upon
freely for advice on practical phases. In 1911 range research was
started in the Forest Service. Some of the agricultural colleges and
universities, with encouragement from the Forest Service, modified
or broadened curricula to provide training in related subjects and
to offer courses and conduct research in range management. Thus
over the years with aid of research by Federal and State agencies,
educational institutions, and tried experience and systemization of
methods in the Forest Service, a reasonably comprehensive science
and practice of range management is in process of development
for improving, maintaining, and utilizing the range resources. Most
of the research work is now conducted by the 6 western regional
forest and range experiment stations at 12 branch field stations sit-
uated in the more important range types both on and off the
national forests, and includes studies both in range management
and the influence of grazing on soil, timber growth, erosion, run-off,
and stream flow. The results of this research have been widely
applied on the national forests, and to some extent on other ranges,
along the lines indicated in the following paragraphs.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 259
RANGE CONDITIONS NOT LEFT TO GUESSWORK
So gradually may improvement or decline of the range take place
that even persons in constant contact with the range are not able
by ordinary observation to detect profound alterations. Obviously
the sum total of changes over a period of years may be noted, but
it may then be too late to repair damage without drastic action.
Sample plots on the range actually mapped and recorded at regular
intervals according to approved methods, serve as reliable checks
less subject to error than human judgment and memory. More than
6,400 of these have been established and are being recorded reg-
ularly to detect range trends in western national-forest ranges. Ap-
proximately one-third of these are check plots fenced against graz-
ing for use in estimating trends on grazed range. The actual records
from these plots serve many useful purposes in settling problems
to the satisfaction of both forest officers and livestock owners.
GRAZING CAPACITY
Keeping numbers of stock within the sustained grazing capacity
of the range has been one of the most important as well as one of
the most difficult undertakings in range management on the national
forests. Grazing capacity differs on different ranges and on different
parts of the same range, depending upon the character, quantity, and
forage value of the vegetation, the character of the soil, the length
and character of the growing season, the period of grazing, the
extent and degree of depletion, also the ease with which livestock can
get over the range, especially as influenced by topography, dense
brush and timber, and the distribution of water. Much depends
also upon the kind of range management, since the number of stock
that can be grazed on a well-managed range will exceed the number
on the same range when poorly managed. Grazing capacity on a
given range also varies from year to year and over one period of
years with another, depending upon vicissitudes of climatic condi-
tions, gradual changes in vegetation, and other factors.
It has been necessary in national-forest range management to keep
accurate check on the number of stock actually grazed, the period
of use, how closely different parts of the range are utilized each
year, the extent to which the range is properly grazed, and whether
or not the range is declining, improving, or remaining unchanged.
With this knowledge it has been possible to make necessary adjust-
ments from time to time on individual ranges, in order to conform
the number of stock to the grazing capacity, and hence to maintain
the forage crop which is basic to sustained livestock production.
SEASONAL USE
Correcting improper seasonal use, whereby stock was turned onto
the range as soon as the vegetation began to grow, has been a major
step in decreasing range depletion. Investigations showed that early
spring is a critical period in plant growth, that higher yields are
obtained for the season as a whole and there is less damage to the
vegetation if grazing is delayed until plant growth is well started
in the spring (116). Of significance in mountainous range also is
260 THE WESTERN RANGE
the fact that plant growth is delayed from 10 to 14 days with
approximately each 1,000 feet of rise in elevation. In the various
range units and elevational zones seasonal use has been adjusted
according to the average dates on which the forage plants are ready
for grazing as determined by records of plant growth built up over
a period of years for many ranges.
Degree of utilization at the close of the grazing season also has
been found to be an important criterion in range management on
most national-forest ranges. The precipitation is poorly distributed
through the grazing season, many of the better grasses and weeds
are of the "bunch" growth habit and do not spread vegetatively ;
the soil usually is not resistant to heavy trampling and consequently
forage growth does not withstand close grazing. Further research
is needed to ascertain the degree of utilization which may be applied
with impunity to important individual range species. Pending fur-
ther findings the safety rule is used of aiming to leave unutilized
at the end of the grazing season in average or normal years, from
20 to 30 percent of the forage volume of the more important forage
species well distributed over the range.
Of the 4,281 cattle and horse allotments and 4,872 sheep allotments
on the national forests, 88 percent are now considered to have satis-
factory seasonal use. On many of the remaining ranges needed
seasonal-use adjustments have not been made because of the lack of
sufficient spring or fall range either inside or outside the national
forests. In these cases it has been necessary to practice lighter
stocking, or completely rest the range after the spring grazing
season.
RANGE AND CLASS OF LIVESTOCK
In order to avoid waste of feed or damage, cattle and sheep when-
ever practicable have been changed about so that individual ranges
are utilized by the class of livestock to which the range is best
adapted. Character of topography, plant species, the presence of
poisonous plants obnoxious to one kind of stock but not to another,
and distribution of watering places are guides that have been studied
on national forests to determine the proper class of stock to graze.
However, the character of the supplemental winter range or forage
supply, the nature of individual livestock enterprises, or other impor-
tant factors sometimes outweigh the desirabliity of suiting the class
of stock to the range. Range protection in these cases has involved
lighter stocking or shorter grazing seasons.
GRAZING SYSTEMS
Systems of grazing have been developed to insure natural reseed-
ing to maintain and improve the forage stand. Range plants which
reproduce chiefly from seed require opportunity, at least in occasional
years, to mature and disseminate a seed crop if the stand is to be
maintained. Artificial reseeding has been found, because of expense
and lack of species suitable to range conditions, to be less satisfactory
than natural revegetation, except in extreme cases.
The deferred and rotation system (114) developed by the Forest
Service is well adapted to meet natural reseeding requirements on
ranges used throughout the growing season. Under this system a
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 261
given range unit is divided into from three to five subunits of
approximately equal grazing capacity. Grazing is deferred on one
of the subunits until after the seed of the more important range
plants is matured and disseminated, after which the subunit is grazed
to utilize the forage and aid, through trampling, to bring the seed
into contact with the soil. The next year a second area is deferred
and grazing on the first is delayed as late as possible to afford oppor-
tunity for the young seedlings to become established. Each subunit
is deferred in rotation in subsequent years. This system operates
very successfully on sheep ranges ; on cattle range fencing or natural
barriers to subdivide the range into subunits are necessary. It also
fits in well with livestock-production practices where lambs or cattle
are marketed direct from the range in the fall, because it affords
fresh range for grazing prior to marketing.
Another system introduced by the Forest Service is conservative
grazing throughout the grazing season to the point where in average
years, at least 25 percent of the important plants well distributed
over the range will attain seed maturity. It necessitates maintain-
ing even distribution of livestock. It is simpler to apply than the
deferred and rotation method, although it involves somewhat lighter
use prior to seed maturity. This system is especially well adapted
for use on ranges having a relatively long grazing season.
HANDLING LIVESTOCK ON THE RANGE
Prior to the establishment of administration on national-forest
ranges cattle and horses were turned loose to roam at will. Sheep
were herded, but bands were moved here and there, with little refer-
ence to the welfare of other herds or the range itself. About the
only restrictions were "dead lines" separating cattle range from sheep
range established in a few places as the result of the early range wars.
Only where water was limited and the range was controlled through
ownership of the watering places was there any semblance of order.
One of the first steps on the national forests to bring order out of
this chaos and to eliminate the resulting damage to the range was to
designate the area upon which each owner was to graze his livestock.
Sheep ranges have been divided into individual allotments, each of a
size and grazing capacity to accommodate one band of sheep for the
prescribed grazing season. Ranges for cattle have been divided,
usually into natural topographic units, and the cattle of specified
owners are assigned to particular units. Stock driveways were des-
ignated over which owners might move their livestock to and from
their allotted ranges without hindrance to other range users. Thus
order was established out of confusion and the users were encouraged
to take an interest in the condition of their ranges and to plan their
enterprises on a more secure basis. The adoption of the range-
allotment system and the elimination of the waste and destruction
of range forage which resulted from the needless trailing and tram-
pling incident to the jungle competition for the choicer pieces of
range was a major accomplishment in range preservation on the
national forests.
Both distribution and more even use of the range have been
obtained in other ways. On sheep ranges the wasteful system of
trailing into central bed grounds has been terminated. Sheep owners
262 THE WESTERN RANGE
were encouraged, and on many national forests required, to bed their
sheep where night overtook them and have the herder camp with the
sheep instead of bringing the sheep to camp. Bedding in one place
more than 3 nights in succession^ has been prohibited. Sheep owners
were encouraged to practice "open herding" — allowing the sheep to
spread out in quiet open formation and to restrict the use of dogs.
Grazing quietly into water" instead of trailing long distances and not
shading up along streams was encouraged to the fullest extent.
Sheepmen soon saw the value of open herding and bedding-out sys-
tems, because, in addition to conserving the range, it resulted in 5 to 7
pounds greater gains in lambs.
Desirable distribution has proved to be more difficult with cattle
than with sheep, especially on rough or mountainous land. The ten-
dency is for cattle to overutilize the flatter places and underutilize the
steeper slopes. Even on rolling or flat range, cattle congregate around
watering places and damage the forage, particularly if the range is
not well watered. Systematically locating salt grounds and salting
at the right time and in the proper quantities has done much to bring
about better distribution of cattle (32).
Herding and range riding, often required of the owners of cattle
using the range, is another effective method applied to obtain better
distribution. Riders and herders usually pay their own way by
preventing straying and other losses.
RANGE IMPROVEMENTS AND CULTURAL PRACTICES
Various improvements which have been constructed on the national
forests also have done much to improve range use, check depletion,
and help restore the range. Drift and division fences have been used
effectively in controlling and distributing cattle. Additional water
developments have been instituted to help improve distribution on
poorly watered range as well as to reduce congestion and trampling
around drinking places. Trails and bridges have been built to open
up otherwise inaccessible range. By the reduction of poisonous plants
areas have been made safer which formerly were lightly used because
of danger of poisoning livestock.
Rodents have been controlled on nearly 13 million acres on the
national forests under direction of the Bureau of Biological Survey —
an achievement that has not only reduced range depletion but has
made available much additional forage for livestock. The Biological
Survey also has materially aided the livestock industry and helped
increase the game supply on national forests by its constant efforts to
control predatory animals.
Many tests to reseed fully depleted ranges artificially have been
made by the Forest Service (52) and some reseeding has been done.
This method of range restoration is considered practicable if properly
done. The best sites have responded satisfactorily to the species thus
far found to be suitable. Areas for seeding must be selected with
care. Ranges requiring reseeding are frequently those which have
lost the better top soil by accelerated erosion. Many such sites are
naturally too poor to respond readily.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 263
INTERMINGLED STATE AND PRIVATE LANDS
The administration of grazing on the national forests is compli-
cated by the occurrence of an aggregate of 10,500,000 acres of private
or State-owned range intermingled in various-sized tracts with the
Federal grazing lands. Most of this land was acquired either be-
fore the national forests were established or later under the forest
homestead law. When such tracts are unfenced and are grazed
without correlation with national-forest land, it is difficult to prevent
trespass. A satisfactory procedure has been worked out whereby the
owner of such lands waives exclusive use of his private land to the
Government in exchange for a permit to graze free the number of
livestock equivalent to the grazing capacity of the private lands, on
some more convenient part of the national forest. In 1934, 3,677,000
acres of alienated land were handled under this plan. Where the
owner does not graze livestock of his own, he may enter into a
cooperative agreement with the Federal Government to receive a
share of the receipts from other permitted livestock. This pro-
cedure results both in simplified management of national-forest
range and in the privately owned land receiving the benefit of
regulated use.
KANGE-MANAGEMENT PLANS
Out of the necessity for maintaining consistent action from year
to year, and because of the multiplicity of elements involved in the
management of the range resources, the Forest Service has worked
out a system of specific range-management planning. General plans
are prepared for a national-forest and ranger district, but the indi-
vidual allotment or other range unit is the basic planning unit.
The more important features in the development of a management
plan are an appraisal or inventory of the resources, an analysis of
the problems, the setting up of objectives, and defining the plan of
action to reach the objectives. As much as possible of the pertinent
data are shown on maps, including grazing capacity, period of use,
movements of the stock on the range, location of salt grounds, pres-
ent and needed range improvements, and deferred and rotation graz-
ing systems. The plans for individual allotments, insofar as prac-
ticable, are worked out in cooperation with the user. The current
program and usually a management map are furnished each per-
mittee or cattle association. The plans are revised from time to
time as experience and observation prove this to be necessary.
A systematic method of making surveys to obtain an inventory
of the range resources and other basic data for determining grazing
capacity and preparing range-management plans has been developed
and applied. Up to the year 1934, approximately 50 million acres
or 61 percent of the total usable range had been covered by such
range surveys. Acceptable management plans have been completed
for 82 percent of the individual range units in the national forests,
including both those based upon range surveys and those on less
comprehensive information. The remaining 18 percent have un-
satisfactory plans or plans in various stages of completion.
The demand for range use is so great on most national-forest
ranges as to warrant making fullest safe use of the forage. Under
these circumstances regular periodic inspections are necessary in
264 THE WESTERN RANGE
order to discuss problems with the users, see that plans are being
complied with, check on trespass, and observe conditions of the
range. At least two intensive inspections a year by a qualified forest
officer have been found to be the minimum requirement on intensively
used ranges.
OBSTACLES AND PROBLEMS IN RANGE MANAGEMENT
Numerous difficulties and obstacles have retarded a more prompt
and fuller attainment of objectives and have left many problems
still to be solved in range management on the national forests.
Some of these would naturally arise in any attempt to establish a
new order in land utilization. Others are due to economic, social,
and political forces of the times. Still others are inherent in the
ranges themselves.
SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC INFLUENCES
One of the more deep-seated obstacles to greater progress in range
restoration on the national forests has been the delay in practical
acceptance of principles of conservation by the stockmen, in spite of
the fact that it was in their interest in the long run to do so. There
is broad agreement as to the validity of the general theory of hus-
banding the resources of the land but its application has not been
readily incorporated into actual practice. One has only to know
the situation on most of the privately owned range lands in the West
to be convinced of this fact.
That this obstacle has been encountered perhaps is not surprising.
The national-forest enterprise constitutes the initial attempt in the
United States to apply conservation principles on a large scale in the
use of public land. It represents the very antithesis of the exploita-
tion which, until a positive administration was undertaken on the
national forests, had pervaded so much of land use in this country.
It is a reversal of the old economic order of extracting everything
possible from the soil for immediate profit without regard for its
effect on sustained yield or future needs. More or less resistance to
such a change naturally was to be expected.
Not all of the restrictions necessary to protect and maintain the
range on the national forests have been opposed by the stockmen;
some have been readily agreed to and others passively accepted. In
too many other instances, however, there has been active opposi-
tion— sometimes from purely selfish motives — and strong political
pressure has been brought to bear, all of which has greatly delayed
though seldom defeated adjustments needed to conserve the range.
Economic conditions, also, have interfered with adjustments in
range use. National-forest range users often have been the victims
of circumstances which have forced them to think largely in terms
of immediate needs and to request delays in reductions of numbers
of stock or changes in practice's to protect the range. The inade-
quate credit facilities, high interest rates, poor markets, maladjust-
ments in land use, high cost of feed, inadequate supplemental range,
aggression by stronger competitors in the use of the open public
domain, and speculative land values that livestock producers have
had to face, have somewhat hampered the application of national-
CONSEKVATION THE EXCEPTION 265
forest management practices. Often it has been in the interest of
immediate individual and community welfare for the Forest Service
to retard adjustments in range use until economic conditions were
more favorable for the stockmen to meet their business obligations.
During the past 5 years of economic difficulty, for example, one
means of extending relief has been to delay making necessary reduc-
tions in grazing use even though these were needed to repair dam-
age by drought and to avert further impairment of the range.
CHANGING DEMANDS
New requirements incident to the growth and development of the
West have created new demands for the public use of national-forest
resources. The increased demand for game and recreational use and
a fuller appreciation of the requirements for watershed protection
are examples. The immediate needs of range users must be con-
sidered in meeting the requirements of these broader public interests.
Adjustments seldom can be made abruptly without subjecting those
directly dependent on the land for a livelihood to hardships. Some-
times overzealous demands, based upon misunderstanding, as, for
example, the opposition to the reduction of game animals on ranges
overgrazed by game, result in sharp clashes between conflicting in-
terests and in delayed action. Usually it is in the greater public
interest to work these problems out slowly even though to do so
involves some delay in range restoration.
THE WORLD WAR
The effect on the range of the United States' entrance into the
World War in 1917 has already been mentioned. With the whole
Nation turning its efforts toward increasing the production of mate-
rials and supplies needed for national defense, restrictions against
overstocking the national-forest ranges were necessarily slackened.
This was done as a part of the program to increase supplies of meat
and wool, even though it was realized that to do so would lead
temporarily to delayed range improvement and possibly to impair-
ment. Some of the ranges were overstocked when the United States
entered the war. The total increase on the national forests during
1917 and 1918 amounted to 188,000 cattle and 876,000 sheep, or ap-
proximately a 10-percent increase on ranges already fully or over-
stocked. In view of the fact that producers had been encouraged
to enlarge their operations and could not liquidate on short notice
after the close of the war without undue sacrifice, these excess live-
stock were not removed at once. The adverse economic conditions
which followed shortly after the close of the war further delayed
and complicated the necessary adjustments. It was not until 1923,
fully 5 years after the war, that these excess livestock were all re-
moved. In the meantime considerable damage to the range has
resulted from overgrazing which called for further reductions.
DROUGHT
The variable climate has been another handicap to progress, as
indicated in a previous section. Rainfall especially has varied
266 THE WESTERN RANGE
widely from year to year and between groups of years. The aim
has been to stock the ranges conservatively enough to avoid injury
from droughts of short duration. Long-term droughts have been
more difficult to meet. Rainfall has been below average over most
western ranges since about 1917 or 1918, and there have been years of
severe drought within this period. In the very serious drought of
1928 to 1934 the absence of available feed made it impractical to
remove livestock from the national-forest range, and in some cases
necessitated increased use as a measure of drought relief. The defi-
ciency in forage production without a commensurate reduction in the
numbers of livestock eventuated in serious overgrazing which, to-
gether with the weakened condition of the range vegetation attribut-
able directly to drought, culminated in serious widespread depletion
of the range. To this set of circumstances is chargeable the major
part of the reductions in numbers of livestock needed for range pro-
tection on the national forests at the present time.
THE CHARACTER OF THE RANGE
The physical character of the national forests themselves make it
extremely difficult to apply management which will result in uni-
form improvement of the range. The wide variation in elevation
from foothills to high mountain tops, the broken topography, differ-
ences in soils, slopes, and exposures, and the resulting differences in
climate and growing conditions, give rise to a variety of conditions
as to plant cover and usability of the range often within a hori-
zontal distance of only a few miles. The vegetation on the whole
is naturally not resistant to close use or heavy trampling. The bal-
ance between plant cover and stability of the soils is delicate and
the steep slopes, thin cover, loose soils, and torrential rainfall induce
erosion immediately when the plant cover is broken. Because of all
these conditions local overgrazed areas or "sore spots" have
persisted.
Soil depletion, as the result of overuse and consequent erosion
existent on extensive areas when grazing administration was under-
taken, has been a serious handicap to range restoration. Rehabili-
tation of these soils necessarily is a slow process and insufficient
time has elapsed to result in much improvement. On some ranges in
Utah, for example, there has been but slight recovery on severely
eroded soils on which grazing has been excluded for the past 20
years.
MALADJUSTMENTS IN RANGE USE AND OWNERSHIP
When first placed under regulation much of the national-forest
range was being grazed for longer seasons than proper management
would allow. Solution of this problem has been slow and difficult
because of the shortage of available spring and fall range on outside
land. Certain of the outside range lands which might best be used
for this purpose in connection with national-forest range — including
parts of the open public domain — were being used at other seasons.
Much of the available spring and fall range was badly depleted. The
area originally suitable for this purpose has been greatly reduced by
cultivation. As yet the seasonal-use problem has not been satisfac-
torily solved on 12 percent of the national-forest range allotments.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 267
nor will be until some major readjustments are made in use of the
outside land.
Other maladjustments in ownership or control of land which com-
plicate range management exist within and along national-forest
boundaries. Approximately 12 percent of the grazing land within
national forests, or about 10,500,000 acres, is alienated and of this
only 3,677,000 acres is being handled as an integrated part of na-
tional-forest range units. Efforts to exclude all but timber and im-
portant watershed land when the national forests were established as
well as subsequent eliminations have resulted in many natural range
units being left partly inside and partly outside the national-forest
boundaries. This has prevented proper management and coordination
of use of land both inside and outside the forests.
DELAYS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF RANGE MANAGEMENT
Still another handicap to higher attainment on national-forest
ranges, already mentioned, was the lack at the outset of an ex-
perienced and trained personnel and the paucity of knowledge of
range management. Range management was a new field in which
the ground had scarcely been broken. It was only as the personnel
became better trained and more experienced and as new facts and
principles were developed by research that standards and practices
of the "rule-of -thumb" era were discarded and scientific range man-
agement began to take shape.
Lack of sufficient funds to carry out various undertakings as soon
as they were recognized to be needed in the application of better
range management has been another cause for delay. Earlier in-
stallations of fences and watering places would have helped to speed
up range rehabilitation. The range-research program has been slow
in getting under way. A larger technically trained range-manage-
ment personnel is needed. Numerous problems, many of urgent
importance, remain to be solved. There are 56,800,000 acres of na-
tional-forest range land still to be covered by resource surveys to
supply data for the preparation of adequate management plans.
RANGE-DISTRIBUTION POLICY
Most of the ranges were already fully occupied when the national
forests were established, chiefly by large livestock owners who were
operating on an industrial basis, but also by homesteaders and other
settlers who had come in and were beginning to gain a foothold on
the range. The country was still in the developmental stage. The
West was looked upon as the land of opportunity for the home
seeker. The general conception of the times was that all an indi-
vidual needed was the opportunity to obtain a piece of land and a
few head of livestock and with the free play of economic forces he
would eventually build up an economic home unit; the national-
forest regulations were framed to foster this kind of development.
In carrying out this objective with regard to the use of the range,
the following policies have been applied in the allocation of grazing
privileges: (1) Preference is given to the small settler or home
builder to afford him an opportunity to build up his agricultural
enterprise into a unit capable of satisfactorily supporting a home:
268 THE WESTERN RANGE
(2) in order to obtain the highest use of both public range and farm
land, preference is given to owners of farm land or winter range
who require summer range for the number of livestock they can
support during the remainder of the year with the products of their
cropland or on owned range land, or both; (3) no rights have been
allowed to accrue to permittees, but in order to promote stability in
livestock agriculture, individuals best qualified under the regulations
have been safeguarded in their use of the range to the fullest extent
consistent with objects of the national forests and the needs of other
qualified range users.
Permits to graze were issued at first to all stockmen who had been
making bona-fide use of the range for a number of years prior to the
time it was set aside as national forest.
Rules and regulations designed to encourage redistribution to small
owners without forcing sudden sacrifices on bona-fide, previously
established users were then applied and subsequently have been fol-
lowed in the issuance of the year-to-year or occasional term permits.
Ownership rather than leasing of land is given prior consideration
because leasing lacks permanency and involves the elements of specu-
lation. Residence on the ranch property is given preference over
nonresidence.
In order to interfere as little as possible with legitimate business
transactions, the permit of an established permittee is renewable to
the purchaser of the dependent and otherwise qualified ranch prop-
erty of an established permittee, or of permitted livestock, if the pur-
chaser already owns properly qualified ranch property. Since a
grazing preference is a privilege and not a right, it must be waived
by the seller of the ranch or livestock to the Government which in
turn renews it to the new purchaser. In the case of the death of an
established range user the permits may be renewed to the heirs.
Whenever the range is overstocked or there is a demand by other
better qualified users, the size of the permit to the purchaser or heir
may be reduced prior to renewal.
In order to prevent monopoly of the range by the purchase of
ranch lands or livestock entitled to a grazing preference, and the
exclusion thereby of other qualified users, a maximum number any
individual may graze has been established for each national forest,
beyond which a permit number may not be increased, except under
extraordinary circumstances.
Minimum limits also have been established below which no per-
mit number is reduced, to make room for new users or to increase
small permits. Such reductions are made on the larger sized per-
mits. This minimum limit is, in each case, an approximation of
the minimum number of livestock which, in connection with the
owned farm and range land, will help to produce a reasonable
standard of living for a family, and varies depending upon local
circumstances and conditions. It is lower where it relates to di-
versified agricultural enterprises in which the grazing of a few
livestock is essential to supplement farm-crop production. It is
higher where it applies to enterprises where livestock raising in
connection with forage-crop production or owned winter range is
the chief source of income.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 269
OUTCOME OF DISTRIBUTION POLICY
The system of allocating the use of the range on the national
forests on the whole has contributed materially to the stability and
maintenance of western livestock agriculture. The practice of relat-
ing the use of the public range to the other agricultural resources
has resulted in making both types of land contribute a higher eco-
nomic return than if each had been used independently. The ad-
ministration of the national forests has been the largest accomplish-
ment in planned land used in the West. The forage supply on
national-forest range has been the most dependable of all of the
factors entering into the economy of livestock producing enterprises.
The advantage which the bigger, more aggressive operator might
have exercised on the range by virtue of stronger financial position
and greater resourcefulness has been removed.
However, the expectation that there would be a material building
up in the number of individuals benefited and in the number of live-
stock they each grazed has not been fulfilled. Instead of a wider
distribution of grazing privileges among a larger number of in-
dividuals, the situation, especially with cattle, is much the same as
in 1909.
There were 27,237 permittees in 1909 and 26,224 in 1934. The rela-
tive number of cattle permittees in each of four permit-size classes,
as shown in table 50 (columns 2, 5, 8, and 11) has remained ap-
proximately the same over the 25-year period, as has also the rela-
tive proportion of the number of cattle in each class (columns 3,
6, 9, and 12) and the average size of the permits (columns 4, 7, 10, and
13). The only notable exception has been a decrease in the average
size of permit in class IV, the largest size class, from 501 head in
1909 to 425 head in 1934. The smallest size class of permittees,
who make up 62 percent of the total number, own only 15 percent
of the total number of cattle grazed. On the other hand, the 7
percent of cattle permittees in the largest size class own 44 percent
of the total number grazed.
The situation with sheep is somewhat different. Sheep permit-
tees number only about one-fourth as many as cattle permittees,
although they own approximately one-half the combined livestock
units (sheep being counted at a 5 to 1 ratio with cattle) . The rela-
tive number of permittees in the small-size class (column 2 in table
50) has increased appreciably as has also the relative number of
sheep in this class (column 3) ; however, a part of this increase, as
well as a part of the decrease in the number of class I cattle permit-
tees is due to permittees having exchanged from cattle to sheep.
There has also been a decline at the opposite end of the scale, in
270
THE WESTERN RANGE
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CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 271
relative number of permittees (column 11), in relative total num-
ber of sheep grazed (column 12), and in average size of permit
(column 13). These decreases have been reflected in a decline of
about 30 percent in the average size of sheep permit (column 14).
The data on sheep permits^ therefore, indicate that there has been
noticeable redistribution among the various size classes.
Size of permit, however, is not the only criterion of sufficiency of
numbers of livestock to meet the needs of individual permittees.
The size classes, especially for cattle and to some extent for sheep,
shown in table 50 relate to many kinds of livestock-agriculture en-
terprises, varying from small diversified farms with a few head of
cattle or dairy farms which require summer range for a few head
of young animals, to practically exclusive livestock-producing
ranches, with all sorts of combinations in between. A few to 40
head of cattle or up to a few hundred sheep, for example, form a
very valuable and usually sufficient adjunct to other farm production
on a diversified farm, both as a source of fertilizer for field soils
and of cash income. On the other hand, this small number is
seldom sufficient to round out a satisfactory home-supporting unit
when livestock are the chief source of income. Since the permits
relating to the various kinds of livestock-agriculture enterprises are
not segregated in the available data presented in table 50, size of
permit alone does not show the full significance of the range-use
distribution policy of the Forest Service.
In order better to understand the influence that economic forces
may have had on size of permits on national forests, a comparison
should be made with otherwise similar livestock-agriculture enter-
prises which do not participate in the use of national-forest range ;
but data to make such comparison are not available. A possible
hint along this line, however, is contained in the census data showing
that the average number of cattle and sheep per farm in the 11
Western States has decreased in approximately the same degree as
the average size of permits on the national forests. The average
size of cattle permit declined from 72 head in 1909 to 69 head in
1934, and the average number of cattle per farm from 24 head in
1910 to 20 head in 1930. Similarly, sheep per farm declined from
74 head in 1910 to 50 head in 1930, or about 32 percent as compared
to a decline of about 30 percent in average size of sheep permits
on the national forests. It would appear from these data that the
trend has been approximately the same among owners who do or do
not use the national-forest ranges.
Many factors other than the policy of administration as expressed
in the Forest Service regulations have had an influence in the re-
distribution of grazing privileges on the national forests, and in
many instances these may have dominated. Adequate data are not
available for a thorough analysis but, as shown in the following
paragraphs, certain conclusions may be based on the information
at hand.
272 THE WESTERN RANGE
During the period 1909 to 1934, a fairly large number of permits
was granted to owners in the smallest size class who had not previ-
ously used the national-forest range. Substantial reductions were
made also in the larger-sized permits to provide range for the be-
ginners and to increase the size of many of the smaller permits. In
a few places permits in the two intermediate size classes have been
granted to new applicants but only where unused range was not
wanted by small operators. Practically all of the reductions in size
of permit for the benefit of range protection have been made in
the larger-sized classes. Only in rare instances, where there were not
enough large permits to absorb the reductions needed for range pro-
tection, have cuts been made in the smaller-sized permits.
In spite of this deliberate action by the Forest Service and a
negligible number of cancelations of grazing permits for the per-
sistent violation of the national-forest regulations or for other
cause, there has been a slight decline in the relative number of small
cattle permittees. Furthermore there has been no sustained increase
in the average size of permits held by them.
Many of the small permit holders have sold their ranch property
or permitted livestock or both to other stockmen to whom the permit
has been renewed and in this manner two or more preferences in
numerous instances have been combined. In some cases small op-
erators have built up their permits into the next size class. In
other cases larger operators whose permits have been reduced either
for redistribution to other users or for range protection, subsequently
purchased additional livestock or ranch property of some smaller
permittees, and in that way many of the larger permits have been
more nearly maintained than otherwise would have been the case.
For still other cases, the permits, usually in the small size classes,
have been voluntarily abandoned.
A study made in several of the Western States in 1935 indicates
the extent to which preferences have been passed from one permit
holder to another or abandoned during the period 1905 to 1934. In
Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada, and eastern Oregon, as shown in table 51,
there has been a relatively heavier dropping out of small permittees
and the larger permits on the whole have been the most stable. On
the other hand, in Utah the small permits have been more stable and
more of them are still in the hands of the original holders than in
any of the other States. In Utah, relatively more of the permit
holders are engaged in diversified farming or outside labor and de-
pend less upon livestock for their income than in the other four
States. A study in eastern Oregon shows further that about 75
percent of the permittees who have dropped out did so within 5
years after obtaining a permit. These data suggest that where live-
stock production is the chief source of income, the small-sized per-
mits are not economically sufficient and after a few years of use the
livestock are sold and the permit is transferred to a new holder,
either another new small owner, an already established small permit
holder who is endeavoring to build up to an economic unit, or an
established large-sized permit holder who desires further to build up
his permit.
CONSERVATIOH THE EXCEPTION
273
The data in table 51 also indicate a considerable lack of stability
in ownership of livestock in all permit-size classes. During the past
30 years there has been an average of almost two predecessors for
every present permit holder or an average length of life of a permit
of between 10 and 15 years. This succession in ownership is ascribed
to the unsettled condition in agriculture in the Western States. The
lowest turn-over on the average has been in Utah where there is
more extensive diversified farming in the vicinity of the national
forests and a more settled type of agriculture than in the other
States. No data are available to afford a comparison in stability of
livestock ownership by ranches using outside range with those using
national-forest range.
TABLE 51. — Percent of, original permittees wUo have dropped out on national
forests in 5 Western States, 1905-34
Size class
Utah
Wyoming
Idaho
Nevada
Eastern
Oregon
CATTLE
F(l to 40 head)
Percent
61
54
63
69
45
39
50
75
Percent
04
53
54
37
67
33
0
12
Percent
73
65
69
46
82
75
75
67
Percent
87
81
60
61
73
56
67
55
Percent
87
78
79
73
85
79
77
77
II (41 to 100 head)
III (101 to 200 head)
IV (over 200 head)
SHEEP
I (1 to 1,000 head)...
II (1,001 to 2,500 head)
III (2,501 to 4,000 head)
IV (over 4,000 head)
These admittedly incomplete data substantiate a conclusion based
on wide observation, that economic forces beyond the influence of the
national forests have played a large part in controlling the distri-
bution of grazing privileges. Small-sized permits, except where
associated with diversified farming or other source of income, be-
cause of being undersized or submarginal in character, have proven
insufficient in many instances to constitute a base upon which the
small settler might build a satisfactory home unit and have been
abandoned or transferred from one holder to another. More often
the transfers are to a larger permit holder because the small permit
holder who might like to enlarge is unable to buy the necessary land
upon which to care for his livestock for the portion of the year
they are not on the national-forest range.
Other factors have had some influence also. One of these is the
term permit. When these are in effect there is less opportunity to
make reductions on the larger permits for the benefit of smaller
holders.
A second factor has been the need for making reductions in num-
ber of livestock grazed for the purpose of range protection. Almost
all of these reductions have fallen on the large operators, and when
these cuts have been heavy there has been a reluctance on the part
of the Forest Service to make additional reductions for the purpose
of admitting new permittees or granting increases to small permit
holders.
64940—36 19
274 THE WESTERN RANGE
In some degree also the Forest Service perhaps has not been aggres-
sive enough in carrying out the policy of redistribution in favor of
the small settler. There are a number of rather large permits still
in existence, although all of them have been greatly reduced at one
time or another. Some of these at least, after having been reduced,
have been built up again through purchase by the holder of ranch
property or livestock of another permittee. On the other hand, the
small number of livestock granted to many of the small permittees
undoubtedly has been insufficient to constitute economic-sized operat-
ing units, and the permits have been given up or the livestock sold
to someone else. The heavier turn-over in small permit holders in
many States strongly suggests this possibility. The alternative
would be granting an economic-sized permit to begin with. At any
rate, it is apparent that merely granting a small permit will not
suffice as the sole basis for building up an economic unit, and the
fact remains that there is still a large number of small farmers in and
adjacent to the national forests, many of whom have no permit at all
and others who have only a small permit, insufficient satisfactorily
to support a home.
The national-forest range, however, is insufficient to afford any-
where near an adequate size of permit to all of these settlers, even
if the larger-sized permits were eliminated entirely. Further redis-
tribution of grazing use on public land is desirable in many locali-
ties, some of which can be done without more fundamental
adjustments, but the lack of sufficient range to meet all needs sug-
gests the necessity of finding other means than further distribution
in the use of national-forest range alone to solve the problem. It
would be unwise to attempt redistribution on a big scale without a
sounder basis than the present available information can afford. At
most, it is a national-forest problem only in part. All ownerships
of land, including farm land, privately owned, and State range land,
the grazing districts, and the remaining open public land, should
be considered together in order to adjust and harmonize ownership
and use among all classes of land. There are two courses to follow,
either the doctrine of laissez faire, in which the fittest will finally
survive, which, except for the preference given the smaller per-
mittees on national-forest range, has been the policy of the past, or
the planned way of ascertaining the facts relating to all classes of
land and then determine the course which will result in the greatest
benefit to the greatest number of people. This constitutes one of
the major unsolved problems in national-forest and other types of
land use.
NET RESULTS OF 30 YEARS OF RANGE ADMINISTRATION
The national forests represent the pioneering effort to apply con-
servation and planned land management on a large scale in the
United States. During 30 years of intensive administration, range
management on these areas has been confronted by the many obsta-
cles and difficulties detailed in the preceding pages, all of which
have in some measure hindered and delayed necessary action and
retarded the accomplishment desired. During this period, however,
definite aims and objectives in line with maintaining and improving
the natural resource have been held to, whereas on private and most
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 275
-other public ranges exploitation of the resource has continued with
little effort to control it.
The net results of these 30 years of effort may be summarized as
follows :
1. The trend of depletion of the range has been checked, and no-
table improvement is the rule. The grazing capacity of the range
area in use in 1934 has been improved 19 percent since 1910. Grazing
capacity on national-forest ranges today is, on the whole, TO per-
cent of that on virgin range, as compared to 33 percent on the graz-
ing districts and the public domain and 49 percent on privately
owned lands in the Western States. At the present time, even in
spite of a long period of deficient rainfall, the 1928-34 drought, and
the extra demands of the 1929-35 depression, only ^19 percent of the
range area on national forests is in such condition as to require
major adjustments in use to permit continued improvement.
2. The watershed lands, which include the heads of practically
all of the important streams furnishing water for irrigation, hydro-
electric power, and domestic use in the West, have been protected
from serious damage and are mostly in an improved condition.
Many mountain streams subject to destructive floods and mud flows
from torrential summer rains when the national forests were estab-
lished seldom have such floods today. Disastrous floods on national-
forest watersheds are rare occurrences except from recent burns or
those few areas on which an adequate cover has not been restored.
This is in sharp contrast to much similar privately owned or other
Federal lands, excepting the ungrazed national parks and municipal
watersheds. Erosion of topsoil and gullying have in a large meas-
ure been checked on national forests, although they are still too
prevalent. They are extremely small in relation to the extent of
erosion on other lands. Along with the benefit of watershed pro-
tection, streams in the national forests have been maintained in
condition to support trout and other game fish.
3. The policy of "multiple use" developed on national-forest land
has made available all of the resources in a manner to obtain the
highest net use of all the land. Of the 87,954,000 acres of usable
grazing land only 5,416,000 acres have been closed for other more
important uses. On the remaining 82,538,000 acres, watershed pro-
tection, timber production, grazing, production of wildlife, and rec-
reational use are correlated and harmonized.
4. When the national forests were established, the population of
wildlife in the Western States was at or near its lowest point in
history. By giving wildlife a definite place in land management,
by urging and assisting in the enactment of better State game laws,
by cooperating with the several States in game-law enforcement,
and in the establishment of more than 100 game refuges on the
national forests, and by developing better game management, the
number of game animals and possibilities for hunting have been
greatly increased. The control of predatory animals under the di-
rection of the Biological Survey has also helped greatly in raising
the game population. Big-game animals on range lands in 1924,
the first year complete estimates were made for all species, num-
bered approximately 613,000 head. In 1934 they were estimated to
number 1,084,000, or an increase in that period of 77 percent. By
developing roads into the national forests and by planting fish in
276 THE WESTERN RANGE
streams in cooperation with other Federal agencies and States, rec-
reational sport has been made available to hundreds of thousands
of fishermen. The additional hunting and fishing not only has
added to recreational enjoyment by city and country people alike,
but the goods and services required by sportsmen have added to the
business of merchants, hotels, and guides in the communities adjacent
to the national forests.
5. The giving of preference in the use of the forage resources on
the national forests to nearby residents who need summer-range land
to supplement and properly utilize their farm and winter-range
land, and thereby to supplement and round out farm or ranch home
units, has resulted in higher use of both the national forest and
privately owned land. It represents one of the few large-scale
efforts to put better land use into effect. Although successful inso-
far as it has gone, accomplishments have been limited by maladjust-
ments in land use and ownership, economic conditions, and other
factors outside the national forests.
6. The aim of protecting the small operator and affording him
the opportunity to build up an economic home unit has been accom-
plished only in part. National-forest administration helped to put
an end to range wars, eliminated the nomad operator on the summer
range, and protected the little man against monopoly of the range by
his stronger, more aggressive neighbor. Small operators have been
afforded more than equal opportunity with large operators to use the
range. The various other elements in range livestock production,
including credits, markets, cost of feed, and land values, have been
far less stable or dependable than the availability and cost of na-
tional-forest range forage. However, the expectation that many of
the smaller operators would build up into units capable of satisfac-
torily maintaining a family has not been realized. Large operators
are fewer in number and have been reduced in size in order both to
stop overgrazing the range and to make more range available to small
operators. Nevertheless, the relative number of small operators and
the average number of cattle grazed by them have not been increased,
although there has been an increase in the number of small sheep
owners. The lack of increases in the case of cattle is believed to be
due in a large degree to maladjustments in land use and ownership
outside the national forests and in some degree, probably, to a too
conservative application of the redistribution policy.
7. The final objective in the protection, development, and use of
the national-forest resources is the establishment and maintenance
of a stable population. The net results of the dependability of the
range-forage crop, the greater opportunity for small operators, cor-
relation of national-forest range with dependent farm and ranch
land, and multiple use of the related resources has contributed mate-
rially to stabilizing home and community development. The settle-
ments around the national forests have a dependable supply of wood,
water, forage, game, and recreational advantages. These lands are
great reservoirs of useful work in time of economic stress. The
counties in which national-forest ranges lie receive 25 percent of the
receipts collected for grazing and other uses for their roads and
schools. The development and protection of the national-forest
properties and other work done by the Federal Government is a
source of income to local labor, has relieved the several States of
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 277
heavy expenditures, and has prevented the waste of resources basic
to the welfare of these States.
8. In its endeavor to solve its own range land and watershed prob-
lems the Forest Service has developed a science and practice of range
management and watershed protection which is applicable to other
classes of range land as well. It has pioneered the way in the soil-
erosion problem on forest and range lands and was the first to under-
take comprehensive study of it. It has been among the first to study
and obtain concrete information on the range problem on the open
public domain and has constantly urged action to correct it.
9. The average annual cost of administration of grazing on the
national forests for the 4 years ended June 30, 1935, was 0.89 cents
per acre of usable range. This cost, however, does not include the
cost of range improvements constructed with emergency and relief
funds and personnel during 1932 to 1935. Present personnel and
facilities for administration, however, are inadequate to render the
services required and should be enlarged. The income from grazing
for this period amounts to 1.46 cents per acre. Whether or not this
cost of administration is too high should be judged only on the basis
of the needs of this job. The Forest Service has held to two broad
aims or objectives — conservation and protection of the resources and
provision of the maximum public benefits therefrom. Either or both
may be sacrificed ; but if so, it must be expected that cheaper admin-
istration will result either in damage to the resources or in reducing
use to a point where the dependent population will be denied the
resources which otherwise might be available to them, either of which
lead to social and economic losses.
These accomplishments are attributable to the following:
1. The setting up of definite aims and objectives and adhering to
them.
2. Anticipating problems and preparing to meet them.
3. A decentralized form of organization.
4. Professional resident management.
5. Accepting full responsibility for decisions, even when superfi-
cially contrary to immediate advantage of range users.
6. Equal consideration for all resources.
7. A long-term viewpoint which leaves the way open for meeting
new needs as they arise in the use of the resources.
8. Jurisdiction over the national forests in the Department of
Agriculture, where activities relating to growth from the soil are
grouped.
Many problems remain to be solved. Further adjustments are
needed to reduce use to the grazing capacity of the range. Seasonal
changes are needed on 12 percent of the grazing allotments. Man-
agement plans including range inventories have not been completed
for all the ranges. Additional improvements, artificial reseeding,
and other work remain to be done. Adjustments must be made as
needed to meet the requirements of multiple use. During 1932 to
1935 intensive range management has lagged, owing to so much
time of resident forest officers being required on emergency relief
work. Probably the biggest single unsolved problem in connection
with the national-forest ranges is the development of a more ade-
quate basis for distributing grazing privileges in accordance with
sound social and economic policies. This involves correcting malad-
278 THE WESTERN RANGE
justments in land use on outside agricultural land as well as a resur-
vey of national-forest policies. Additional research is the founda-
tion to the solution of many of the problems.
INDIAN LANDS
Kange lands within Indian reservations occupy a unique place in
the consideration of the national-range situation. This is so, not on
account of the considerable area or commercial importance, but be-
cause these lands belonging to the Indians constitute a definite re-
sponsibility of the Federal Government for management and ad-
ministration.
The legal status of each Indian reservation or individual tract of
Indian land now rests firmly on the provisions of an Indian treaty,
and Executive order, or Federal patent, definitely recognizing or es-
tablishing indisputable Indian title to the property and in most in-
stances restricting passage of this title. The Indians are wards of
the Federal Government and this guardianship extends to the super-
vision and administration of the Indian lands.
The uses to which the Indian range has been devoted, the steps
taken in its administration, the present ownership status, and even
the extent and physical condition of the resources are intricately
involved with the ever-changing degree of interest in Indian affairs ;
and are reflections of the efforts of the Federal Government to direct
the use of the land resources of the Indian toward fostering his social
and economic development. The multiplicity of aims and social
theories involved has resulted in a rather complicated pattern of
achievement.
In 1849 the Bureau of Indian Affairs was transferred from the
War Department into civil control as a bureau of the Department
of the Interior. Since then the functions of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs have been developed to a high degree of beneficent paternal-
ism. In addition to providing services as an aid to the health, edu-
cation, employment, and other personal needs of the Indians, progres-
sive steps have been taken in the management and development of
the reservation properties, including activities directed toward the
conservative management of the Indian range lands (83).
INDIAN RANGE RESOURCES
Over 80 percent of the total land in Indian ownership is within
the range livestock-producing regions of the West. Plant types and
forage characteristics of these broad regions have been fully dis-
cussed in an earlier part of this report, and are not reviewed here
except to mention that the forage on the various Indian reservations
is basically the same as that which occurs generally throughout the
territory of which they are a part. Several plant types suitable to
the ranging of both sheep and cattle are found on each major reser-
vation regardless of location. The distribution of Indian land
valued for forage production by States and grazing types recognized
by the Indian Service, as compiled from 1934 statistics, are presented
in table 52. Of the 43,200,000 acres given a range-land classification,
slightly over 3 million is listed as barren or waste, leaving a balance
of over 40,000,000 acres for use by livestock.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION
279
On nearly all of the 47 reservations summarized in table 52, full
use is made of the annual forage crop. In 1934 approximately 10
million acres were under temporary lease or permit to whites, pend-
ing the time the range is needed for Indian livestock. Indian live-
stock owners paid grazing fees on an additional 1.7 million acres and
on the remainder, comprising nearly three-fourths of the total,
Indian-owned livestock were grazed on a free use basis.
The relative proportions of white and Indian ownership and the
total livestock reported using the range in 1934, are shown in table 53.
TABLE 52. — Areas of Indian reservations of range importance by types and
States
State
All range
land
Open land
Sage and
browse
type
Coniferous
timberland
Woodland
Aspen
Waste and
barren
Arizona .
Acres
22, 318, 555
Acres
9, 520, 391
Acres
4, 860, 534
Acres
2, 230, 441
Acres
3, 706, 118
Acres
3,740
Acres
1 997 331
California
372, 935
21, 825
123, 840
33 620
68 812
134 838
Colorado ..
533, 332
44,000
49,000
418, 186
12, 814
12 332
Idaho
424, 484
10,000
370, 324
44, 160
Montana
5, 582, 196
3, 987, 568
423,524
403, 964
386, 840
101, 200
279, 100
Nevada
804, 507
112,973
585, 779
3,355
1,000
101 400
New Mexico
North Dakota...
3, 641, 063
944, 628
1, 606, 707
854, 814
613, 942
26, 630
722, 380
432, 275
30, 064
2,000
5 980
263, 759
27 140
Oregon
1, 539, 723
80,754
204,026
1 204 004
35 939
15 000
South Dakota
3, 730, 422
3, 514, 794
50, 493
36,240
128 895
Utah
401, 108
113, 179
178, 219
26,880
62 500
2 500
17 830
Washington
2, 110, 210
342, 587
337, 387
1, 396, 217
34,019
Wyoming
829, 440
193, 526
370, 205
125,000
3 600
800
136 309
All States.
i 43, 232, 603
20, 403, 118
8, 143, 410
6, 658, 700
4, 775, 202
117, 220
3,147,953
1 The total area of range available to domestic livestock on Indian lands in the West, as shown elsewhere
In this report, is 48,391,000 acres inclusive of small areas of waste range within the larger bodies of range
land. The acreage shown in this table is exclusive of public domain Indian allotments, small fenced tracts
within reservations, or other areas within Indian ownership which have not been classified as to forage type.
In the few instances where a reservation extends into two States it is listed here and in following tables with
the State in which the Indian agency is situated.
TABLE 53. — Indian- and white-owned livestock on ranges, 1984
Ownership
Cattle
Horses
Sheep
Goats
Indian
Number
229 343
Number
134 863
Number
901 765
Number
215 566
White
227 460
24 943
671 933
Total
456 803
159 806
1 573 698
215 566
The Indian-owned livestock make use of the reservation range
for the yearlong period except when it is covered with snow. In
some localities, particularly on the northern reservations, supplemen-
tary feeding is practiced; but by far the larger percentage of the
Indian stock graze yearlong on the reservation ranges. The white-
owned stock generally is grazed under permits specifying the sea-
son of use, which varies from a few months of intensive summer
grazing to more moderate use over a longer period, depending on
the nature and location of the range. The Indian ranges on the
larger reservations are quite important sources of feed, and there
is ready demand for use by white-owned livestock of the forage not
needed for Indian livestock.
280 THE WESTERN RANGE
The present condition of the ranges varies widely in different
regions. The Indian range, lands in Oregon and Washington, ex-
cept for some minor localized injury due to faulty distribution of
stock, are in good condition. On the northern Great Plains reser-
vations, where the native sod of buffalo grass has been undisturbed
and the area used solely .for grazing, the ranges are also generally
in fair to good condition. Some futile attempts at dry farming
have destroyed the native vegetation, but it is estimated that some-
what less than 100,000 acres of plowed Indian land in the Plains
States should be returned to grass.
In the Southwest the situation is serious. Approximately one-
half of the total range lands in the Navajo, Hopi, and Papago coun-
try, particularly ? is seriously overstocked and presents a severely
overgrazed condition. Erosion by both wind and water has re-
moved and is still removing the fertile topsoil on hundreds of thou-
sands of acres. The condition of these ranges, in spite of the first
steps toward corrective measures which have been taken, is steadily
growing worse. The fine texture of the soil and the absence of sod-
forming vegetation, together with irregular torrential showers, cause
a heavy run-off which results in serious damage (90). Drastic ac-
tion toward livestock reduction and range rehabilitation will be nec-
essary on millions of acres before the Indian range lands of this
region are again capable of making their full contribution to the
welfare of the Indian owners or the Nation as a whole (161).
A survey of. western ranges made in 1935 indicates that the Indian
lands on the whole have been depleted approximately 51 percent of
virgin condition, and about 4 percent of the total usable range area
is extremely depleted, 54 percent is severely depleted, 36 percent is
materially depleted, and 6 percent of the range is only moderately
depleted. It is believed that in virgin condition these Indian ranges
had a grazing capacity at the rate of 4.2 acres for each animal-unit
month. The present carrying capacity is approximately 8.2 acres
per animal-unit month, although the ranges are now stocked at the
rate of about 6.0 acres per animal-unit month. Over the past 30
years the trend in condition has been downward on 75 percent of
the Indian ranges, and there has been improvement on about 10 per-
cent. During approximately the past 5 years the trend has been
downward on 63 percent, and there has been improvement on about
4 percent of the total range area.
ADMINISTRATION OF INDIAN RANGE
The record prior to the organization of the forestry unit in the
Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1910 does not indicate that any con-
siderable attention or systematic effort was given to the supervision
of Indian range lands, even though in 1891 the leasing of Indian
lands for grazing purposes was authorized by law. Indeterminate
numbers of livestock made seasonal or yearlong use of the range,
largely on a trespass basis, and the various efforts toward interesting
the Indians themselves in the livestock industry met with varying
degrees of success.
For 6 to 8 years after 1910 some attention was given to the range
situation in the Southwest by the forestry unit of the Indian Service.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 281
A system of range allocation was inaugurated, and fees were col-
lected for grazing privileges. This work was subsequently turned
over to the various reservation superintendents, and thereafter but
little real progress in range control was made. Some years later, but
prior to 1920, as forestry organizations were developed on the res-
ervations of the Northwest, the responsibility for the supervision of
grazing activities was gradually assumed on the more important
forested reservations of this region. Range lands were organized
into grazing units, a permit system with a definite control of the
number of stock and season of use was adopted, and an orderly pro-
gram of management was placed in effect (15 1±, pp. 607-632). As a
result of the progress made in range administration on the reserva-
tions of the Northwest and of the growing recognition of the im-
portance of range conservation, the supervision of all grazing activi-
ties on Indian lands was delegated to the forestry branch in 1930.
A definite and systematic program of range management for ap-
plication on all reservations was initiated, directed toward the con-
servation and regulated use of range resources. To the extent allowed
by the funds available, a technically trained personnel has been de-
veloped for range administration. The objectives were definitely
stated in the grazing survey report previously cited, and were ap-
E roved by the Secretary of the Interior June 4, 1931. In abbreviated
arm, they are as follows :
1. The preservation of land, water, forest, and forage in a safe
and entire state.
2. The permanent welfare of the livestock industry generally and
the Indian livestock industry in particular.
3. The protection of the interests of the whole Indian people against
unfair competition by the more aggressive individuals.
4. The conservative utilization of all forage resources, primarily
through the development of the livestock industry among Indians,
and secondarily through the regulated sale of grazing privileges.
On the forested reservations of the Northwest these regulations
served to strengthen the plan of administration already in operation,
and but little modification of range-management practices was re-
quired. On other reservations used largely by white-owned stock
there was considerable opposition, both on the part of the Indians
as landlords (161) and the livestock operators as lessees, to the inau-
guration of this more positive system of range management.
Much more encouraging progress has been made on the ranges used
by white operators than on ranges used by the Indians themselves.
In the Southwest, although many thousands of sheep and goats have
been removed from the Navajo ranges and constant effort for further
improvement is steadily being made, progress toward sustained-yield
management has been relatively slow. An extension program directed
toward improving their knowledge and understanding of range man-
agement has been instituted among the Navajos as a part of the plan
for gradually reducing the number of stock on the overgrazed ranges.
The problem of the administration of Indian range lands, with its
many ramifications, has by no means been solved, but definite steps
toward sustained-yield management have been taken, and further
progress seems assured.
282 THE WESTERN RANGE
SPECIAL HANDICAPS IN ADMINISTRATION
LAND STATUS
The governmental policies which have been applied with respect
to Indian lands have resulted in a highly involved land status on
some of the reservations today which has greatly complicated man-
agement of the range resources. From colonial days until recently
the friends of the Indians, without exception, tried to lead, persuade,
or force them into the settled domestic mode of living which the
white man had developed and which has proved so satisfactory to
him. A permanent home instead of a nomadic life, a family group
instead of a tribal band, domestic livestock instead of wild game,
and individual instead of communal ownership of land, were con-
sidered to be necessary for the proper development of the Indian.
In carrying out these principles the Indians were encouraged
to make selections of land on their reservations and these selections
were then conveyed to them as allotments. When the Indians of a
reservation had each been allotted land for homemaking and tribal
reserves of timber and grazing grounds had been made, the surplus
lands were in many instances opened to homestead entry or disposed
of in other ways with the proceeds of disposal credited to the tribal
funds.
Many variations of this land program were applied on the numer-
ous reservations in the Northern States, and as a result much land
unsuited to individual development has been passed into private
ownership. In the Southwest, owing to the stronger communal
traits of the Indian people and the more obvious unsuitability of
the reservation land for use in small tracts, this land-disposal pro-
gram was not so generally applied.
As a result of the various land transactions within the boundaries
of many reservations there are five distinct classifications of land
ownership :
1. Ceded and^ alienated. — Lands to which the Indian title has been
completely extinguished by Executive order, Federal purchase or
comparable governmental action.
2. Alienated allotments. — Lands in homestead size tracts to which
patent in fee simple has been issued to individual Indians and
which may still remain in Indian ownership or may have been dis-
posed of to whites. Such lands are subject to taxation and sale and
are in every sense private property.
3. Ceded but unentered. — Lands ceded by the tribe to the Federal
Government for disposal by the General Land Office. Indian title
will not be extinguished until homestead entry is approved and
proceeds paid into the tribal fund.
4. Trust allotments. — Lands in homestead size tracts to which pat-
ents have been issued to individual Indians with restrictions as to
alienation or encumbrance.
5. Tribal. — The undivided community-owned lands of the tribe.
The extent of holdings under the various status classes in 1931
were as follows :
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 283
Acres
Ceded and alienated 10, 775, 263
Alienated allotments 3, 897, 012
Total__ 14, 672, 275
Ceded but unentered 1, 812, 205
Trust allotments 13, 539, 641
Tribal lands__ 30,051,979
Total— 45, 403, 825
Grand total M 60, 076, 100
This highly involved and decentralized ownership of land, which
for purposes of effective and efficient range management should be
handled in large consolidated blocks, constitutes one of the most
trying problems of Indian range administration.
IKDIAN RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES
In addition to the intricately involved land status, there are sev-
eral other problems peculiar to the administration of Indian lands, all
deriving from the premise that "the least government is the best gov-
ernment" and that the Indians are entitled to a wide discretionary
latitude in the handling of their own property. Because of this
policy, Indians have not been prevented from grazing semiwild
and almost worthless ponies yearlong on seriously depleted spring
ranges. The desire to encourage the Indians in the ownership of
sheep and cattle to develop economic independence and habits of
industry has resulted in the minimum of restrictions on overgrazing,
poor distribution, and other bad range practices.
The importance of income from the grazing use of individual
allotments has been a further serious source of difficulty in range
administration. The right of each individual Indian to obtain the
highest possible current income from his property and the implied
responsibility of Indian Service employees to support this procedure
tended for years toward inadequate control of stocking and over-
use of the range. The consolidation of Indian allotments into range
units and the application of the permit system, accomplished under
the grazing regulations of June 4, 1931, have been of major impor-
tance in improving this situation.
WHEELER-HOWARD ACT
It is too early in the operation of the Wheeler-Howard Act (June
18j 1934) — the most notable recent legislation with respect to Indian
affairs — to make a conclusive appraisal of its ultimate effect on
Indian range lands. However, certain of its features are extremely
important in connection with range-land management.
The explanatory title of the act indicated its scope :
To conserve and develop Indian lands and resources ; to extend to Indians the
right to form business and other organizations; to establish a credit system
for Indians ; to grant certain rights of home rule to Indians ; to provide for
vocational education for Indians; and for other purposes.
83 This acreage includes all Indian lands in the United States and therefore does not
agree with the total acreage in the western range area.
284 THE WESTERN RANGE
The first four sections of the act deal with land status and owner-
ship and are directed toward restricting the further alienation of
Indian land to the irreducible minimum consistent with proper in-
heritance procedure. This will operate toward the stabilization
of the ownership of Indian land in its present status and, together
with the authorization for consolidation and acquisition contained
elsewhere in the act, should have a helpful influence in range
conservation.
Section 6, in which range management is specifically mentioned,
reads as follows :
The Secretary of the Interior is directed to make rules and regulations for
the operation and management of Indian forestry units on the principle of
sustained-yield management, to restrict the number of livestock grazed on
Indian range units to the estimated carrying capacity of such ranges, and
to promulgate such other rules and regulations as may be necessary to protect
the range from deterioration, to prevent soil erosion, to assure full utilization
of the range, and like purposes.
This section makes the protection of Indian range lands and the
application of sustained-yield management a definite mandatory
responsibility of the administrative organization, but, since in each
case of serious overgrazing on Indian lands the stock is owned by
the Indians themselves, a much more complex procedure is involved
than the mere modification or cancelation of a grazing permit. In
fact, it would seem to involve a modification of lifelong habits and
customs and the substitution of some other means of procuring a
livelihood for a large percentage of the Indian population in the
Southwest. Social and economic development must go hand in hand
with the application of the conservation features of the Wheeler-
Howard Act. If so, in the ultimate application of these conserva-
tion features, the Indians themselves as well as the Indian ranges
will be greatly benefited.
PROBLEMS
The variation from time to time in the social aims and objectives
of Indian guardianship by the Federal Government, the peculiar
desires and habits of the Indian himself, the complicated pattern of
land status within the reservations, and the failure for a long time
on the part of administrative agencies to recognize that conservation
and sustained yield of the range resources are fundamental to the
future social and economic development of the Indian have resulted
in a variegated pattern of accomplishment in conservation of the
Indian-range resources. There has been severe depletion of the
range forage, especially in the Southwest. On the forested reserva-
tions of the Northwest where the forestry unit of the Indian Service
assumed responsibility for the supervision of grazing activities prior
to 1920, the ranges are in reasonably good condition. Finally in
1930 the supervision of all grazing activities on Indian lands was
delegated to the forestry unit and a positive program of range con-
servation was started. The many problems have by no means been
solved but sustained-yield management has now been initiated and
further progress seems assured.
Among the more important problems still to be dealt with are:
Further reduction in numbers of livestock on many of the reserva-
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION
285
tions and especially in the Southwest; the development of more
adequate range-management plans; the installation of needed range
improvements, range reseeding, and control of soil erosion; insofar
as possible, the readjustment of the complicated status of land owner-
ship inside the reservations; and improving the knowledge and
understanding on the part of the Indian of the importance of range
conservation and how to accomplish it.
THE GRAZING DISTRICTS
Approximately 162 million acres of unreserved unappropriated
public domain remained in the United States on June 30, 1934 — prac-
tically all of it in the 11 Western States. This is the last "picked'
over" remnant of the once vast acreage of free public land, which
except for 65 million acres now being organized for administration
under the Grazing Act is a no man's land so far as conservation
and orderly use of its resources are concerned. In addition, there
also were on June 30, 1934, approximately 29 million acres of other
Federal land in withdrawals for reclamation, preservation of oil, oil
shale, coal, and minerals, and for other special purposes which, so
far as grazing is concerned, is in the same status as the remaining
unreserved public domain. The grazable range area involved is
approximately 60,567,000 acres in the grazing districts, 67,224,000
acres in the unreserved public domain, and 22,996,000 acres of other
Federal lands. The forage resources on this land including that in
grazing districts as shown in table 54 have been depleted approxi-
mately 66 percent as compared to virgin condition and the soil and
watershed values have been greatly impaired. The use of the land
for wildlife conservation has been greatly reduced. The lack of
regulation has led to serious social and economic maladjustments.
Although the need for regulation to conserve and wisely use these
resources has been recognized for many years and efforts to obtain
action have been aggressively urged since late in the last century,
nothing was done about it until recently. In June 1934 the Grazing
Act was passed, but only after opposition which forced amend-
ments that greatly lessened its value as an instrument for the solution
of one of the Nation's major conservation problems.
TABLE 54. — Degree of depletion of virgin range in plant types on the combined
usable range area of grazing districts, unreserved public domain, and minor
Federal reservations
Plant type
Total
area ]
Moderate
depletion
(0-25
percent)
Material
depletion
(26-50
percent)
Severe
depletion
(51-75
percent)
Extreme
depletion
(76-100
percent)
Average
depletion
Tall grass
1,000 acres
147
Percent
100
Percent
Percent
Percent
Percent
12
Short grass ..
12, 925
6
44
48
2
49
Pacific bunchgrass
2 552
21
48
31
ce
Semidesert grass . .
10, 420
1
24
59
16
60
Sagebrush-grass
49 384
1
10
52
37
fiQ
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub
7,954
32, 657
17
10
62
43
21
47
64
72
Pi non-juniper
26 863
2
g
39
51
Tfc
Woodland-chaparral
1,813
47
53
51'
Open forests
6,074
11
26
49
14
Total or average
150 789
2
15
48
OE
Includes acres of usable range closed to grazing for various purposes.
286 THE WESTERN RANGE
FAVORABLE FEATURES OF THE GRAZING ACT
The title of the Grazing Act lists as its purposes :
To stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil
deterioration ; to provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development ;
to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range; and for
other purposes.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, to
establish grazing districts, aggregating not to exceed 80 million acres,
out of the vacant, unappropriated and unreserved lands of the conti-
nental United States, exclusive of Alaska. The objects of the graz-
ing districts are stated to be "to regulate their occupancy and use,
to preserve the land and its resources from destruction or unnecessary
injury, to provide for the orderly use, improvement, and develpp-
merit of the range." The Secretary is directed to "make provision
for the protection, administration, regulation and improvement of
such grazing districts as may be created, * * *" and to "make
such rules and regulations and establish such service, enter into such
cooperative agreements, and do any and all things necessary" to
accomplish the purposes of the act and to insure the objects of the
grazing districts, and is authorized "to perform such work as may
be necessary amply to protect and rehabilitate" the grazing districts.
The Secretary is further directed to "specify from time to time the
number of livestock that shall graze within a district and the seasons
when a district shall be used for grazing" and to fix or determine
reasonable fees for the use of the range.
It would appear to be clear from the foregoing provisions that
the Secretary of the Interior has broad discretionary power to do
whatever is necessary, subject to appropriations for such purposes, to
perfect administrative machinery, establish necessary rules and regu-
lations, construct range improvements, regulate the use, and do what-
ever else is necessary to stop injury from overgrazing and to conserve
all the resources on the public lands set aside as grazing districts.
The act also provides for the exchange of State or privately owned
land within a grazing district for public land on the basis of equal
value. Thus opportunity is afforded to clear up situations where
intermingled privately owned or State lands otherwise would com-
plicate administration.
The grazing districts are closed to homestead entry except tracts
which are classified by the Secretary of the Interior as more valuable
for farm crops than for native forage plants. Supplemental to the
Grazing Act, all of the remaining unreserved unappropriated public
domain has been withdrawn from entry under the nonmineral land
laws pending classification. Consequently, until the Executive with-
drawal is modified, public-domain lands are no longer subject to
disposal under the homestead laws.
SHORTCOMINGS OF THE GRAZING ACT
Accomplishment of the purposes and objects of the Grazing Act
may be greatly hampered or even defeated by certain weaknesses in
the" law. The act contains several restrictive clauses; others are
ambiguous or conflicting and will require interpretation in the courts
before a clear understanding is possible. At least, until these clauses
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 287
are judicially construed, contentions and differences of opinion will
handicap the making of administrative decisions and will impede, if
not prevent, real accomplishment in conservation and use of the
resources. Much will depend also upon the policies for administra-
tion which are adopted under the broad discretionary powers dele-
gated by the act. A clause in the opening sentence, "pending its final
disposal", weakens the structure of the whole act. It implies that
administration is only temporary and discourages far-sighted aims
and objectives and initiation of the kind of action essential to the
proper protection and conservation of the resources. It appears to
make clear that the intent of the act is to dispose of these lands in
the reasonably near future. The whole history and experience with
this land has been that it is unsuited to private ownership and should
remain in the jurisdiction of some public agency financially and
administratively qualified to cope with the problems of management.
The maximum of 80 million acres authorized to be included in
grazing districts is only approximately one-half the public land
needing attention. At best, therefore, the present problem is only
half met.
RELATED EESOUECES NOT RECOGNIZED
No specific provision is made for the protection of watershed values
in order to control the menacing erosion or reduce the serious floods
which originate on this land, beyond that which may be accomplished
by revegetation and improvement for grazing purposes, or for the
development and use of the other resources — more especially game,
wood, and recreation. On the other hand, the act is so explicit
throughout with reference to use and development of the land for
the grazing of livestock that there is bound to be strong and per-
sistent contention that the act is designed wholly for the welfare of
the livestock growers, or at least is so colored that great difficulty
will be encountered in interpreting it otherwise. If the task involvecl
no more than restoring the meager grazing resources, it might be
argued that the land had better be abandoned without attempting
conservation. But this land cannot be written off the books and dis-
carded like a worn-out piece of machinery. Depletion has brought
excessive run-off and water or wind erosion almost everywhere.
Fully 50 percent of the usable range land comprises parts of water-
sheds or is otherwise so situated that floods and silt are destructive
to power and irrigation development and to adjoining land, and are
making increasingly difficult the maintenance of highways and rail-
roads across this vast domain. The breeding, on depleted public
domain range lands adjoining agricultural sections, of insects in-
jurious to farm crops promises to become a serious problem unless
the present host plants, which have come in as the result of over-
grazing, are replaced. These various consequences extend to areas
and values far beyond the limits of the land itself.
The grazing-district lands, in addition to producing forage for
domestic livestock, afford other important possibilities of use. They
constitute the natural feeding place or breeding grounds, or both, for
various species of game animals and birds. Some areas support
woodland or forests which are an important source of fuel and build-
ing material for local use. Still other parts have high potential
288 THE WESTERN RANGE
value for outdoor recreation and the human enjoyment of desert
flora, geologic forms, and scenery.
In order to realize the maximum contribution to local communi-
ties and the general public welfare, there should be correlated use,
protection, and development of all of the resources on the grazing
districts so as to obtain the highest net benefit from all combined,
in accordance with actual present and probable future needs. Per-
haps this can be accomplished under the broad authority conferred
upon the Secretary of the Interior.
LIMITATIONS ON TRANSFERS OF LAND FROM GRAZING DISTRICTS TO NATIONAL FORESTS
The act provides for the transfer of any lands within national
forests chiefly valuable for grazing which can best be administered
as grazing districts. There are several million acres of land now in
national forests which perhaps might be administered under either
the act of June 4, 1897, governing the national forests, or the Graz-
ing Act of June 28, 1934. However, since the Grazing Act greatly
restricts action to conserve and wisely use the resources of the land,
certainly no good purpose could be served by placing in the grazing
districts land now under national-forest status, which has been ef-
fectively and satisfactorily administered for a c[aurter of a century.
Moreover, the Grazing Act should have provided for the transfer
of any lands in grazing districts or the open public domain which
adjoin and form integral parts of timber bodies, watersheds, and
range units largely within national forests.84
There are approximately 26 million acres of forest range land
in the unreserved public domain and grazing districts in the Western
States which should be added to the national forests in order to
simplify administration, and devote the lands to the purposes for
which they are chiefly valuable. It would also be possible for users
of a single economic unit, now divided under two Federal jurisdic-
tions, to deal with a single administrative agency. This would still
leave approximately 1,000,000 acres of isolated tracts of forest range
land for administration under the Grazing Act.
LIBEEAL SALE OR LEASE OF ISOLATED TRACTS OF PUBLIC LAND
Scattered practically throughout the more solid blocks of privately
owned range land in the West are isolated tracts of public land of
a few to several thousand acres in area, aggregating upward of 10
million acres or more, which cannot readily be administered as parts
of grazing districts. Most of them are submarginal for private
ownership, or title long since would have passed.
The Grazing Act provides for the leasing of such isolated or dis-
connected tracts or parcels of 640 acres or more in area to owners of
contiguous lands, under such terms and conditions as the Secretary
may prescribe. It also provides that such tracts, not exceeding 760
acres in area, may be sold at public auction when in the judgment
of the Secretary of the Interior it is proper to do so. Still another
provision in the act authorizes the sale of legal subdivisions of
public land not exceeding 160 acres unsuited to cultivation, to own-
84 Utah, South Dakota, and Nevada are the only . States where, at present, national
forests may be created or enlarged by Executive order.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 289
ers of adjoining land regardless of whether the tract is or is not
isolated or disconnected. These provisions in the act may be admin-
istered so as to safeguard the public interest. On the other hand,
if administered in accordance with the past policies and traditions
of land disposal in the United States, they may become an effective
means of defeating the purposes of the Grazing Act, jeopardizing
the public interest on several million acres of public land, besides
adding to the present excessive burden of private ownership of
range land.
Within the limits of the railroad land grants, for example, where
the odd-numbered sections are alienated, the alternate sections, the
large majority of which in many localities still belong to the Gov-
ernment, are isolated tracts within the meaning of the law. In
Nevada the odd-numbered sections in a strip approximately 320
miles long and 40 miles wide were granted to a railroad company
and most of the even-numbered sections still belong to the Govern-
ment. If leased to the railroad companies, which are the owners
of the contiguous land, it would be physically almost impossible
to enforce requirements to protect the range and prevent overgrazing
of the intermingled public land. The control would largely be in
the hands of the present owners or lessees.
FUNCTIONS OF RANGE CTTETAILED
The grazing-district land in the main is basically unfitted for
development and use independent of lands in other forms of owner-
ship or control. This public range is needed primarily to supple-
ment tilled forage-crop lands and range lands in other forms of
ownership and^control to the end that satisfactory rounded-out op-
erating units involving all classes of agricultural land will be
achieved. Accomplishment of this aim is complicated by the highly
unsocial and uneconomic land-use situation which has developed
under the inadequate land-disposal policy of the past. Under the
system of economic and physical competition which has existed on
the open public domain, the more aggressive stockmen in numerous
instances have been able to crowd out their weaker neighbors and
to monopolize the watering holes and better areas of range.
For example, in one Western State having a large acreage of un-
regulated range, past practice has permitted the larger livestock
interests to acquire from the State land and water which might have
been used to better advantage in production of cultivated forage
crops to supplement the public range. This land they have utilized
chiefly for the inefficient production of wild hay and to control large
areas of public range to the exclusion of diversified agriculture.
In 1916 one writer (6) stated, "Instead of numerous small farms
cultivated by their owners, we see great land holdings owned largely
by corporations and managed in such a way as to create conditions
unfavorable to the welfare of the laborers and the public." The
situation has changed but little since that time. To bring about the
needed adjustments in land use and ownership involves the applica-
tion of sound forward-looking social and economic principles in
the administration of the Grazing Act.
64946—36— —20
290 THE WESTERN RANGE
In this connection, with reference to the issuance of permits for
the grazing of livestock, the act provides that :
Preference shall be given * * * to those within or near a district who
are landowners engaged in the livestock business, bona-fide occupants or
settlers, or owners of water or water rights, as may be necessary to permit
the proper use of lands, water or water rights owned, occupied, or leased
by them. * * *
To the extent that this clause provides for such an integration of
public lands with other grazing and forage-crop lands of a locality
as will result in the highest use of all the land, it specifies a highly
desirable objective. However, to attach the grazing privilege to the
land, water, or water rights in a manner to permit their "proper
use" regardless of all other circumstances would result in dividing
the available public-range resource and attaching it in proportional
quantities to all of the owned land or water with which it might
properly be used. To do so would perpetuate and enhance existing
monopolies in land use which have been established in many in-
stances by the stronger individuals taking advantage of their weaker
neighbors.
Take, for example, a locality where neighboring small settlers
and large-sized livestock outfits, each owning or leasing land and
water in equal proportion to the number of livestock they own, all
use in common a public range having insufficient grazing capacity
properly to use all of the land and water owned or leased by them ;
the small operators under such conditions and under a possible in-
terpretation of the law would be required to reduce their number of
livestock in the same ratio as the large operators, regardless if to
do so would impoverish the small operators ; it would be impossible
under such circumstances to impose proportionally heavier reduc-
tions on the larger outfits in favor of the small settlers in order that
the latter might continue to maintain their standard of living from
the land and livestock. In other words, the act appears1 to give
preference to existing property rights rather than to human needs
in the distribution of public benefits.
In Nevada where most of the springs and streams are held by
the ownership of small tracts of privately owned land or under the
livestock-water law of that State, this clause in the Grazing Act
might be construed as granting to such holders the use of all the
surrounding public range land that might be necessary to permit the
proper use of the available water. In that event, the old practice of
controlling large areas of public domain by the ownership of a few
acres of land strategically located, would be confirmed by law.
The use of public range in connection with leased land or water,
is theoretically commendable to the extent that it would help the
small owner to enlarge his grazing preference and in that manner
improve his standard of living. But this also is a double-edged
sword. The larger resident operator or transient stockman fre-
quently is the stronger competitor and higher bidder for lands
offered for lease. Moreover leasing gives the absentee property
owner benefits which more properly should be given to local residents
who need them to maintain permanent homes in the locality where
the public range is situated. Therefore, it appears not to be in the
interest of improving local social conditions to give equal considera-
tion to leased and owned land in distributing public-range privileges.
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 291
DANGEE OF RANGE EIGHTS BECOMING ESTABLISHED
Several provisions of the Grazing Act contain language which
might be construed as a grant to favorably situated stockmen of
indefeasible rights and privileges in the use of forage and related
resources on grazing-district lands, even though the exercise of these
rights and privileges prevents an equitable allotment of such re-
sources. For example, section 1 contains the following provision:
Nothing in this act shall be construed in any way to diminish, restrict, or
impair any right which has been heretofore or may be hereafter initiated
under existing law validly affecting the public lands, and which is maintained
pursuant to such law except as otherwise expressly provided in this act * * *
At the end of section 3 it is further provided that —
So far as consistent with the purposes and provisions of this act, grazing
privileges recognized and acknowledged shall be adequately safeguarded, but
the creation of the grazing district or the issuance of a permit pursuant to
the provisions of this act shall not create any right, title, interest, or estate in
or to the lands.
While persons hitherto using the range involved did so under a
sort of implied license without acquiring a vested right thereto, the
provisions of the act quoted above, although aimed to deny the crea-
tion of right in the land itself, imply a right of user amounting to a
property right which the Secretary of the Interior cannot disturb.
Should it be so construed, his administrative control of such land as
elsewhere provided in the act would be seriously hampered, if not
defeated, and he would therefore be compelled to suffer a continua-
tion of present conditions regardless of what the public interest
might require in bringing about properly regulated management.
There can be no doubt as to the intent of that part of section 3
reading as follows:
* * * except that no permittee complying with the rules and regula-
tions laid down by the Secretary of the Interior shall be denied the renewal
of such permit, if such denial will impair the value of the grazing unit of
the permittee, when such unit is pledged as security for any bona-fide loan.
Obviously the limitation placed on the powers of the Secretary
of the Interior by this provision may be used by permittees mate-
rially to restrict, if not wholly to defeat, adjustments in range use
that are necessary if grazing privileges are to be equitably dis-
tributed in the interest of home and community development or for
the purpose of improving and protecting the range. There are
very few livestock or ranch properties which do not continuously
constitute security for a loan, the value of which would be impaired
in varying degrees by denying the owner a renewal in full of his
permit. This provision discriminates against the owner who hap-
pens to be free of debt when he applies for a renewal and — most
important — makes it possible for any permittee to continue his exclu-
sive use of the range and obtain other undue advantages by simply
using his livestock and ranch property as security for a loan, the
amount of such loan apparently being immaterial. In short this
provision enables permittees very easily to perpetuate their monoply
regardless of how adversely such perpetuation affects the interests
of the community and the general public.
The dangers involved in the establishment of rights in public
resources is illustrated by the accumulated experience of Europe
There the public interest has suffered in three ways: Large
292 THE WESTERN KANGE
areas of forest, both public and private, have been needlessly de-
stroyed or severely damaged; the progress of agriculture has been
held back by the perpetuation of uneconomical land use and stock-
raising methods; and the rights themselves have been the source of
much wasteful litigation and ill feeling. Despite the struggle going
back over several centuries to extinguish these rights, many are still
in existence. About the only way the situation can be met is by
outright purchase and then only where the holder agrees to the bar-
gain, except when there is cause to exercise the right of eminent
domain. There is grave danger that the safeguarding of privileges
to use public domain as set forth in the Grazing Act at the present
time, if allowed to remain will eventually become more securely fixed
by right of long usage.
In the United States, the fixing of rights to use the range is seen
to have highly undesirable features at the present moment, but it
may become a more serious menace in the future. Vested rights in
Europe originated when forests were abundant and pasturage was
scarce, and under such circumstances damage to the forest was of
less import. With time the situation was reversed and grazing
rights have become a real handicap to meeting the needs for timber.
A similar reversal of conditions may develop in this country. As
the needs for protection and use of the land for watershed purposes,
game, and recreation multiply, the fixing of rights on the grazing
districts will seriously interfere with these purposes. Quite as im-
portant also is the lessening by fixing of rights of the opportunity to
correct the uneconomical land use which has grown up in the West.
COMPLICATIONS WITH STATE LAWS
If the States fully exercise the jurisdiction expressly conferred on
them by two provisions of the act, the Federal Government may find,
it impossible to administer grazing districts in an effective manner.
The first of these provisions is found in section 1 and provides that
nothing in the act shall be construed in any way "as limiting or
restricting the power or authority of any State as to matters within
its jurisdiction." The other is contained in section 16, which reads
as follows:
SBO. 16. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as restricting the respective
States from enforcing any and all statutes enacted for police regulation, nor
shall the police power of the respective States be, by this Act, impaired or
restricted, and all laws heretofore enacted by the respective States or any
thereof, or that may hereafter be enacted as regards public health or public
welfare, shall at all times be in full force and effect : Provided, however, That
nothing in this section shall be construed as limiting or restricting the power
and authority of the United States.
These two provisions are ambiguous and might be construed to
mean that existing and future State laws will apply to grazing dis-
tricts established under the Grazing Act and will prevail over any
conflicting or inconsistent regulation of the Secretary of the In-
terior. If so construed, regulatory control over these districts thus
in large measure would be turned over to the several States and the
authority of the Secretary of the Interior would be so limited that
he could not take any action with respect to the grazing districts
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 293
which conflicts with State law, particularly if the proviso at the
end of section 16 is strictly construed. However, since the legisla-
tive intent reflected in this section and in the last sentence of section
3 is not clear, it is not yet possible to determine accurately how such
provisions will be interpreted. Therein lies one of the major difficul-
ties of the act. Many parts are so ambiguous and so conflicting
that controversies are bound to occur until such time as the act has
had judicial interpretation.
EANGE ADMINISTRATION BY STOCKMEN
Obviously much will depend upon the kind of administration
developed under the broad provisions of the act with respect to
meeting the needs both of those dependent upon the range and the
broader public interest. Section 9 stipulates that the Secretary of
the Interior "shall provide, by suitable rules and regulations, for
cooperation with local associations of stockmen, State land officials,
and official State agencies engaged in conservation or propagation
of wildlife interested in the use of the grazing district." This pro-
vision is a favorable feature, resembling that adopted under rules
and regulations applying to the administration of grazing on the
national forests, in that it recognizes the desirability of giving the
user an advisory voice in local affairs and induces voluntary in-
terest in the range. Whether or not it should be made the main
instrument of administration seems doubtful.
Rules have been adopted by the Department of the Interior speci-
fying the procedure under this clause which provide for the selec-
tion of stockmen representatives35 for all grazing districts and for
wildlife and recreational representatives in one of the western;
States, New Mexico.36 In commenting on the procedure for selecting
stockmen representatives, the Annual Report of the Secretary of the
Interior for the fiscal year ending Jane 30, 1935 (p. 16), states as
follows :
* * * the Cervices of local persons familiar with the range problems will
be secured by a special election of district advisors from among local stock-
men. * * * By this means the practical local viewpoint will be available at
all times in the administration of the law. * * * They will take the regular
oath of office of a Federal official and will be the local governing agency as to
all matters of range regulatory nature concerning their particular district.
The Interior Department will exercise necessary supervision and provide basic
technical criteria for conservation of natural resources.
This no doubt is an indication of the intended form of administra-
tion. It places the large balance of power in the hands of the live-
stock interests and leaves to the Government representatives the
mere exercise of supervision and to "provide basic technical criteria"
for use by the stockmen.
To grant to the stockmen the major controlling power in the
administration of the grazing districts implies that they will exer-
cise the necessary self-restraint and denial in immediate use and
misuse for the sake of the permanence of the range, something rarely
» United States Department of the Interior, Division of Grazing. Rules Providing for
Special Elections for District Advisors to Assist in Management of Grazing Districts.
U. S. Dept. Int., Dept. Grazing Circ. 1, 5 pp. 1935. [Multigraphed.]
86 United States Department of the Interior, Division of Grazing. Special Rules for
Grazing Districts in New Mexico. U. S. Dept. Int., Dept. Grazing Circ. 3, 2 pp. 1935.
[Multigraphed.]
294 THE WESTERN RANGE
exercised on their own lands. Conservation of the resources requires
a large fund of technical knowledge of a difficult problem and cash
outlays to restore productivity. It involves a high degree of public
spirit to forego range use and the denial of personal profit in order
to realize on public values in watershed protection and game con-
servation, which may be considered by the individual stockman to
be of little if any direct benefit to him. There must be cooperative-
ness in an unusually high degree to prevent individuals holding posi-
tions of power from using them to their own immediate advantage.
All these are the very antithesis of the doctrine of laissez f aire which
has resulted in the present condition, not only of the grazing-district
range itself but of the bulk of the area of privately owned and State
lands throughout the West.
What is needed, in addition to the cooperation of all classes of
users and full opportunity to express their voice in an advisory
capacity, is a well-planned, closely knit, positive administration with
adequate technical skill which will give full consideration to the
broader community, State, and interstate public interest as well as
to the local livestock industry.
The problem of stopping damage and restoring the grazing capac-
ity of the grazing districts is highly difficult and technical, because
of the serious depletion, adverse soil and climatic conditions, and low
Eroductivity. It will involve heavy reductions in the numbers of
vestock grazed and management from more than a short-sighted
viewpoint. Other essentials are the protection of watersheds, con-
servation of game, and the development of the use of the resources
other than livestock forage. Still another of the big tasks is to
bring about the proper integration of use of the grazing-district land
with other agricultural lands both inside and adjoining the grazing
district, and to place the capacity of the land to support dependent
populations ahead of large profits for a relatively few; problems
having broad public aspects. It is doubtful whether these functions
will be exercised under a system of administration of self -regulation
by the stockmen who use the range.
Finally the Grazing Act sets up an agency in the Department of the
Interior to deal with agricultural problems, whereas practically all
other agricultural functions of the Federal Government, including
administration of the national-forest ranges, are grouped in the De-
partment of Agriculture. Another problem therefore is that of
how best to unify responsibility for range administration in a single
department of the Government.
CONSERVATION ON PRIVATELY OWNED RANGE
Approximately 51 percent of all western range lands are in private
ownership. According to estimates based on the best available in-
formation as shown in table 54a only 12 percent of this land has
been maintained or restored to within 25 percent of its virgin condi-
tion. The least depletion is found in the tall-grass and open-forest
types ; only approximately 5 percent of the total area of all the other
types is in the moderate depletion class. Among the factors which
have contributed to depletion, as pointed out in earlier sections of
this report, are excessive stocking or other rule-of -thumb manage-
ment, lack of legislation that permitted acquisition of land in units
CONSEEVATION THE EXCEPTION
295
best suited to proper use of land for range-livestock production, un-
sound financing, high interest, heavy taxation, poor marketing facil-
ities, competition that compelled excessive ownership of land and
inflation of land values, and other conditions some of which the
private landowner has been unable to control The privately owned
range lands which are in the better condition class today are of
especial interest in developing a program for the solution of western
range problems,
TABLE 54a. Degree of depletion of virgin range try plant types on privately
owned lands
Proportion of total ownership
Plant type
Area
Mod-
erate
deple-
tion
(0-25
Mate-
rial
deple-
tion
(26-50
Severe
deple-
tion
(51-75
Ex-
treme
deple-
tion
(76-100
Aver-
age de-
gree of
deple-
tion
per-
cent)
per-
cent)
cent)
per-
cent)
Thousand
acres
Percent
Percent
Percent
Percent
Percent
Tall grass
17,271
72
24
0
4
22
Short grass
148, 144
8
47
28
17
51
Pacific bunchgrass
35, 913
8
38
50
4
50
Semidesert grass
48, 425
34 791
3
3
30
6
63
46
4
45
54
71
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert shrub
10, 643
0
22
52
26
63
Salt-desert shrub
5 251
1
3
45
51
74
Pinon-juniper
20, 900
8
30
42
20
56
Woodland-chaparral
10, 640
43,568
1
28
45
46
52
21
2
5
51
38
Open forest
All types
375. 546
12
37
36
15
51
The privately owned range lands which are exceptions to the more
prevalent condition of serious depletion may be classified into four
groups. These are (1) isolated cases of individual ranges in good
condition within areas where, because of the prevalence of unfavor-
able natural factors, the general situation is one of depletion; (2)
ranches or groups of ranches within regions where natural and other
factors are more or less favorable, as in parts of the Great Plains;
(3) ranges in areas where natural conditions practically dictate the
continuous practice of range-conservation measures, as in the sand-
hills region of Nebraska, and (4) on privately owned lands in and
adjacent to the national forests. These privately owned ranch lands
in good condition have never received the thorough study they re-
quire in order to set forth with finality the contributing factors.
This analysis, therefore, must be based on general knowledge and
information. However, the results from a few examples are indic-
ative.
WEST OF THE GREAT PLAINS
With few exceptions natural conditions west of the Great Plains
render difficult the conservation of the range. The rainfall is low
and often poorly distributed and droughts are frequent. Few of
the native plant species or types are highly resistant to grazing
and the grazing capacity is naturally low. 'The soil on extensive
areas is easily damaged by trampling. The composition and char-
296 THE WESTERN RANGE
acter of the vegetation is such that damage to the range may occur
long before it forces a reduction in the number of stock being grazed.
The lack of control on the extensive open public domain has often
caused pressure to overuse privately owned land. These are only a
few of the adverse factors with which the private owner has had
to deal. In spite of this general situation there are scattered ranch
lands in good condition where the owners have successfully con-
served the range.
Two or three range units on Kolob Mountain in southwestern
Utah, for example, have been maintained in good condition as con-
trasted with severely depleted holdings adjoining them. The own-
ers of the good ranges purchased their lands a good many years ago
at relatively low prices and thus have escaped excessive interest
charges on land indebtedness. They have stocked their ranges con-
servatively and the original cover of snowberry, mountain brome-
grass, weeds, and other plants carry sheep through the summer
season at the rate of two-thirds of an acre for each animal for each
month. This is approximately a one-third higher grazing capacity
than on some of the adjoining ranges, which have been overstocked.
In the whole State of Utah there are perhaps a dozen such well-
cared-for private ranges.
In Idaho at least one wool growers' association has done a credit-
able job of forage maintenance on most of its spring-fall range, a
large part of which is leased from the State. The association has
adopted rules limiting the number of stock to be grazed and the
seasons of use, and practices deferred and rotation grazing. The
enterprise has been handled under the guidance of one or two pro-
gressive stockmen who have foreseen the value of sustained-yield
range management. The net result of these factors is that the range
is far above average in condition.
In California a number of ranches are used continuously for
range — some for over 50 years — on the basis of sustained yield of
forage. Seasonal deferred and rotation grazing has been prac-
ticed. Distribution of stock has been improved by fencing and
water developments. One ranch in Marin County once badly de-
pleted has been brought virtually to its pristine condition. A strict
type of deferred grazing was followed. The unit was well balanced,
and the operator devoted all of his time to his ranching business.
In Humboldt County, Calif., a 40,000-acre ranch, used for live-
stock production for 50 years, still supports a maximum stand of
California oatgrass. The area is an economic and balanced unit.
The operator has been careful not to overgraze and has practiced
deferred grazing. He has not expanded speculatively.
An old Spanish land grant in Colorado is now being managed
under deferred and rotation methods of grazing, and stocked con-
servatively so as to restore the original carrying capacity that was
seriously depleted by former lessees.
The reasons for the individual cases of privately owned ranges
in good condition west of the Great Plains, which represent prob-
ably less than 5 percent of all range lands in private ownership
in that area exclusive of those in and adjacent to the national forests,
may be summarized as follows: (1) Reasonable cost of range land,
either purchase cost or rental ; (2) well-rounded-out operating units ;
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 297
(3) close personal attention to use of the range; (4) the application
of some of the fundamental principles of range management; and,
(5) most important of all, an appreciation that conservative use
of the range to maintain yield of forage is the foundation to sus-
tained livestock production.
THE GREAT PLAINS
In the Great Plains short-grass type naturally favorable factors
have contributed much to the 8 percent of privately owned range in
that type that is in good condition. Within this region rainfall is
15 to 20 inches and a relatively larger proportion of it falls during
the growing season than further west. The dominant vegetation
over large areas is grama, buffalo, western wheatgrass, sedges, and
other sod-forming species which are relatively resistant to graz-
ing, trampling, and drought, and recover quickly from set-backs if
given reasonable opportunity, as compared with the bunch grasses
and other species which occur in many western range plant types.
The land, on the whole, is flat to rolling, and watering places may
be developed relatively cheaply — factors which favor good distribu-
tion of livestock on the range. In many localities these favorable
factors are offset in some degree by light soils which are low in
productivity or are easily damaged by trampling. Prudent man-
agement also has contributed to the ranges which are in good con-
dition in the Plains region, but on the whole the more favorable
natural factors have been the dominating influence.
Sarvis (119) has found in his work at the northern Great Plains
field station near Mandan, N. Dak., that under a very heavy stocking
of one steer to 5 acres as compared to a proper stocking of one
steer to 7 acres during the same grazing season the decline in range
takes place very slowly and that after 19 years the grazing capacity
had declined only 46 percent on the overgrazed range. His studies
show that due to the recuperative capacity of the grasses almost
complete recovery took place where all of the grasses had not been
destroyed, in 1 or 2 years of average or better rainfall with com-
plete rest or moderate to light use. He reported very marked im-
provement during 1935 on extensive areas of privately owned land
in western North and South Dakota following the almost complete
removal of livestock on account of the 1934 drought.
Sarvis' studies and Hurtt's (76) in Montana both show that cattle
do not make as good gains on overstocked as compared to properly
stocked range. In other words, overuse of the range in the Great
Plains is quickly reflected in the condition of livestock — a reversal
of the situation on many range lands further west — which encour-
ages more conservative stocking when the aim is to obtain maximum
weights of animals at marketing time.
The Pumpkin Creek-Mizpah grazing district in Montana is an ex-
ample of the improvement in range lands obtainable where favorable
natural conditions are coupled with the practice of range manage-
ment by progressive stockmen. Although conditions are not as
favorable here, as on many other parts of the Great Plains, the com-
bination of good rainfall distribution, soil, and character of vegeta-
tion is better for maintenance of the range than where bunch grass
298 THE WESTERN RANGE
is the chief forage. The present association range of approximately
100,000 acres grew out of a desire of the users of the area to solve
an almost impossible land-ownership pattern which had grown out
of the past land policy and to stabilize the cost of range feed.
Forty-one percent of the area was railroad grant lands, 25 percent
open public domain, 6 percent State, and 28 percent privately owned
land in small tracts. The major object of the legislation establishing
the grazing district was to coordinate all of these ownerships into an
integral unit of range land. The key to control was the public
domain, which under the permissive policy of the Government was
open to use by all and subject to regulation by none. The 75 percent
of non-Federal lands represented most of the grazing capacity within
the area.
The act authorizing the withdrawal of the public domain con-
tained an important section providing for cooperation between all
interested agencies and landowners. Coordination was effected
through organization of the users into an association which leased
the railroad land, exchanged the State land for Government land,
leased or offered to lease the small privately owned tracts, and pur-
chased the tax-delinquent lands. The entire acreage was pooled so
that it could be managed and administered as a community range.
Regulations for the administration and government of the area,
adapted from those in effect on the national forest ranges, were
framed by the association and approved by the Secretary of the Inte-
rior. They included the permit system, fees based upon the estab-
lished rate per head as determined by the annual expenses of the
association, allocation of use according to dependence of individual
owners upon the range in order properly to utilize their owned range
and crop Land. An inventory of the range resources following For-
est Service methods was made for use as a base in determining graz-
ing capacity and a plan of management.
The plan of local administration and management has operated
well, and persons familiar with the area report that the range has
improved. Thus the naturally favorable factors, solution of an
unsatisfactory mosaic of land ownership, the desire of a small group
of stockmen with common interests to bind themselves together, and
the adoption of simple principles of range movement applicable to
the prevailing conditions have resulted in benefits to the whole
community.
In the flint hills of Kansas and Osage hills of Oklahoma natu-
rally favorable factors and the type of livestock production have re-
sulted in the maintenance of the range. The 30 inches of rainfall
and a soil formed largely from limestone, but too shallow to till, pro-
duces high forage yields. Rehabilitation in this type according to
Dr. A. E. Aldous, of the Kansas Agricultural College, will take place
under 2 years of rest and 2 years of moderate use if a small number
of the original plants remain to start with. Moreover, much of the
range is used for fattening steers on pasture which discourages exces-
sive stocking because to do so results in poor gains in weight by the
animals.
In Texas are found a number of large privately owned ranches,
some of them in excess of 100,000 acres in area, have been improved
by wells, reservoirs, and fences, and divided into seasonal pastures
CONSERVATION THE EXCEPTION 299
and moderately stocked so that plentiful pasturage is supplied except
in the severe drought years.
THE SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA
The sand hills of Nebraska represent a unique situation because
natural conditions have virtually dictated a policy of conservative
use which has resulted in range preservation. Other factors have
contributed, but they are secondary. This is a compact area of
11,520,000 acres on a low rolling sand-dune formation which has
become fixed by the tall-grass cover located in the northwestern part
of the State. The soil is a fine sand, subject to severe wind erosion
when not protected by vegetation (72).
Early attempts at crop farming on 640-acre homesteads under the
Kinkaid Act failed in this section. The fine sandy soil, once the
vegetative cover was removed, became moving sand dunes. Taught
by bitter experience the survivors consolidated their holdings into
larger units, abandoned cropping practices, fenced their lands, and
engaged irt livestock production, based upon using about 80 percent
of the land for pasture, 18 percent for native hay meadows, and less
than 2 percent for crops.
Despite the delicate balance in which nature holds these lands, the
climate, the native vegetation, and the absorptive capacity of the
soil favor rehabilitation after depletion. Seventy-six to 80 percent
of the 16 to 21 inches of precipitation falls between April and Sep-
tember and are readily absorbed. Forage yields are reduced by
drought, but complete failures in forage production are unknown.
The soil dictates forcibly the methods of management which will
maintain a plant cover. Overgrazing or prairie fires expose the sand
to wind action and cause rejuvenation of blow-outs. Extreme care
must be exercised to prevent trailing or undue concentration of live-
stock at water holes or wells because the depletion under abuse is
rapid and conclusive. The one essential that must be observed is
the maintenance of a covering of vegetation to prevent wind erosion.
Other factors have been helpful. The production of grass-fat beef
or of fat feeders that may be finished on corn has encouraged light
stocking to insure the best gains. Costs of production have been kept
low enough to avoid pressure on the range. Favorable location and
transportation facilities result in a short haul to market and oppor-
tunity to take advantage of the higher markets. However, conserva-
tive range use is the principal factor accountable for a restoration
on privately owned land comparing favorably with that on the Ne-
braska National Forest, where the grazing capacity has been built
up 55 percent since 1911.
PRIVATELY OWNED RANGE LANDS IN AND ADJACENT TO NATIONAL FORESTS
National-forest administration has had a profound influence on a
large proportion of the privately owned range lands in good condi-
tion in the open-forest type (table 54a). Much of this land lies in
and adjacent to the national forests. There are approximately 10.5
million acres of alienated grazing land intermingled with Federal
land within the exterior boundaries of the national forests. The
great bulk of this is privately owned land, the remainder being in
300 THE WESTERN RANGE
State or other public ownership. A far greater acreage of privately
owned land in the open-forest type lies adjacent to the national
forests.
Management of 3,677,000 acres of the alienated land inside the
public forest boundaries is waived to the Forest Service. A still
greater acreage, both inside and adjacent, is handled under the "on
and off" permit system, the private land merely being handled as
part of forest-range units. This has resulted in the privately owned
lands being managed practically as national-forest range.
FACTORS WHICH HAVE FAVORED RANGE CONSERVATION
The best available estimates indicate that only 12 percent of the
privately owned range land in the western United States have been
maintained in good condition. These lands (see table 54a) are found
chiefly in the sand-hills region of the tall-grass type in Nebraska,
and in the open-forest-range type within and adjacent to the national
forests of the West. In the short-grass type in the Great Plains,
approximately 8 percent of the privately owned land is in good
condition, and throughout the remainder of the West are found a
few scattered tracts.
Natural favorable factors, such as better-than-average growing
conditions, plant species which are resistant to grazing and have
high recuperative capacity, such as the sod-forming species in the
Great Plains, a firm soil, good grazing capacity, and conditions which
favor good distribution of livestock on the range have played an
important role in maintaining many of the private ranges in good
condition. Still other contributing factors which have favored
range preservation are low purchase cost and freedom from exclusive
interest charges on land, low-cost public range in connection with
privately owned range, good business management, well-rounded-out
operating units, favorable location with regard to markets, and
special-use range, such as that for grass fattening of livestock. That
these natural and economic factors have contributed materially to
the avoidance of range depletion is not to be minimized. However,
the fact cannot be overlooked that there are, or at least were before
range depletion occurred, a far greater number of privately owned
or controlled range units on which most if not all of these factors
are favorable than there are such units upon which the range has been
maintained in good condition. Furthermore, there are units where, in
spite of many of these factors being unfavorable, range depletion
has not occurred.
To deliberate efforts to so use the range that the grazing capacity
will be sustained must be credited the greatest measure of range
maintenance on privately owned lands. There are individual owners
who have learned from experience, as in the Nebraska sand hills, or
for other reasons have come to realize that their range land is not
an inexhaustible mine but that it must receive proper consideration
in use if it is to continue to be a source of forage for sustaining live-
stock production. These owners have practiced conservative grazing
and applied simple range-management practices in order to maintain
their basic resource. There is no other single range region where
range-livestock production is on as sound a basis as in the sand hills
of Nebraska, where stern necessity early taught stockmen that
conservative grazing pays.
V. ITS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FUNCTION
Before passing to a discussion of the steps required to halt further-
deterioration of the range, and to restore it to something approaching
its original productivity and greatest public benefit, it is essential to
evaluate what the range resource and its depletion mean to the West
and to the Nation as a whole.
An appraisal of either the resource or its depletion is possible only
in terms of their social and economic significance. The production
of livestock, the water yield, and the income, pleasure, and diversion
from the wildlife and recreational opportunities dependent on range
lands mean nothing unless they add to human welfare; and on the
other hand, reduced grazing capacity, floods and erosion, depletion of
wild game, and impairment of recreational facilities carry no import
unless they detract from the well-being and standards of living
necessary to personal and national security.
To all of these products and services the vegetation on the range
is the key. Without it, all the other benefits to mankind that range
lands yield are void. With it livestock thrive, parched lands are
watered, game and other wildlife have ample forage and cover, the
natural beauty and grandeur of desert, plain, and mountain side are
enhanced, and upon this renewable and self -perpetuating resource,
more valuable than all the gold the West has mined, a thrifty and
enduring civilization can be maintained. The purpose of this chap-
ter is to review the functions of the vegetation cover of the range
from the angles of watershed conservation, wildlife preservation,
recreation, and the integrated agriculture of which the range is an
inseparable part.
301
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
By REED W. BAILEY, Director, and Charles A. Connaughton, Silviculturist,
Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station
Preservation of satisfactory watershed conditions on range lands
is vital to the well-being of the West and therefore is of concern to
the entire Nation. Most towns and villages, many cities such as Los
Angeles, Salt Lake City, and Denver, and innumerable ranches and
farms rely on a usable and adequate supply of water produced wholly
or in part on range-land watersheds. Irrigation enterprises repre-
senting investments of nearly 6 billion dollars depend on a stable soil
mantle and stream flow from water-yielding ranges. Water power
and recreation for multitudes of people are sustained in many cases
by stream flow from range watersheds. A large population is de-
pendent on the soil of range lands to produce forage upon which the
2-billion-dollar grazing industry and its source of income are based.
The range watershed situation presents three aspects : Eighty-five
percent of the flow of important western streams comes from about
232 million acres, of which 79 percent is range lands. Silt is being
borne down into these streams from erosion on approximately 352
million acres, practically all of which is grazed. Finally, much of
the remainder of western range lands, such as those in the Great
Basin and Great Plains, is eroding so seriously that it is imperiling
productive capacity of the land, even though none of this eroded
material is contributing to larger streams.
All this points clearly to the great importance of constantly main-
taining an unbroken and productive soil mantle on all range land
and the maximum yield of water from range watersheds; yet little
thought has been given to the conservation of these values on other
than the national forests and some municipally owned areas. De-
pletion of vegetation, as shown previously, has been the rule for the
most part under other types of ownership or control, and with it
have come floods and erosion menacing the social and economic
security of the entire region. The destruction of soil and impair-
ment of watershed values is without doubt one of the gravest results
from misuse of the range.
WATERSHEDS or THE VIRGIN RANGE
The nature of the vegetation and soil mantle that clothed the
watersheds of the virgin range, the normal course of stream flowr
and the characteristics of natural erosion can be estimated from the
testimony of present conditions on well-managed national forests and
protected municipal watersheds, from such vestiges of primitive
areas as have thus far escaped depletion, and to some extent from
geologic evidence. Here may be seen how, during past centuries,
soils were safeguarded against excessive erosion and leaching by the
binding power of plant roots which filled the surface and subsurface
layers and by the physical protection which the plant cover and
303
304 THE WESTERN KANGE
organic mulch provided. As rains fell on the area, the full impact
was broken by the aerial parts of the vegetation, thereby preventing
compacting of the soil surface. On the virgin range dead plants
and herbage formed a ground litter, and eventually mixed year after
year with the mineral soil and produced a loose, porous earth mantle
which absorbed and retained against evaporation the maximum
quantity of water from rain and melting snow. The channels
formed by plant roots facilitated percolation. As the surface water
ran off its velocity was reduced by plant and litter obstructions which
checked and broke up the flow. Forest and shrub litter prevented
direct access to the soil by water flowing off slopes, and a similar
effect though not so complete in semiarid areas resulted from litter
of herbaceous plants, hence run-off water was clear or almost so.
The water absorbed by the topsoil percolated through the lower soil
depths and rock crevices to issue forth later as springs. These
maintain the flow of rivers and streams that have made possible
irrigation agriculture, electricity for industry, and municipal water
supplies.
In that stable and porous soil mantle the young nation pioneering
its way into the West had a priceless resource of which it was then
and for many decades thereafter unaware. It was a resource built
up by the age-old process of soil building and normal erosion, which
progresses with the slowness of geologic time, and has throughout
millenniums sculptured and molded the face of the earth. The soil
of the mountain slopes and the alluvium of the valley floors have
been produced in this way — even the rocks of which most mountains
are composed have been formed of sediments which are products of
older periods of erosion and deposition. The principal method of
transportation of the weathered material from the slopes was by
natural gravity creep rather than by stripping and gullying by
water — the creep of the soil being rarely rapid enough to disturb
plant populations or modify their general aspect. Surface run-off
carried a minimum of silt, destructive floods were unknown on many
areas and uncommon on most others, and streams were generally
clear, receiving what silt load they carried from the bottom of chan-
nels rather than from the vegetated slopes and protected stream
banks.
Ordinarily erosion progressed so slowly that soil was formed or
accumulated slightly more rapidly than it was removed. Only under
unusual conditions, as in Bryce Canyon, Utah, on certain Mancos
shale areas in Colorado and Utah, on the Chinle bad lands of Arizona,
and in the Breaks of the Missouri River, have adverse climatic and
geologic conditions prevented the fixing of the land surfaces by soil
formation and plant growth. In these relatively few instances,
run-off has been rapid and normal erosion pronounced, giving rise
to muddy streams whose flow fluctuated greatly.
Elsewhere soil and vegetative cover were sustained by virtue of a
delicate balance between the constructive and destructive forces. On
the one hand the weathering of rock and plant succession built up the
soil mantle, and the vegetation that blanketed it served to hold it in
place; on the other hand, the destructive forces of a rigorous and
variable climate and of steep slopes operated against this accumula-
tion and stabilization. Vegetation was invariably the deciding factor
in the balance. The presence of a natural plant cover enabled the
constructive forces to nold sway and to preserve watershed values.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
305
THE FLOOD AND EROSION MENACE OF RECENT YEARS
When the white man's herds of cattle and sheep multiplied beyond
the capacity of the range to carry them properly, depletion of vegeta-
tion upset this natural balance and the utility of the virgin watersheds
became impaired. As overgrazing and fire reduced the density of the
Slight or no erosion
Material erosion
Severe erosion
Severe wind erosion
FIGURE 65. — CHARACTER AND EXTENT OF EROSION ON WESTERN RANGE LANDS.
As a result of range depletion, accelerated erosion is fast removing incredible quantities
of soil from large areas, resulting in the devastation of range and agricultural lands
and serious silting of irrigation improvements. In this process, the fertile topsoil
on which the range depends is the first to go.
range cover, and as the litter and humus layers were broken through,
the devastating forces of soil erosion were greatly accelerated (fig. 65)
and unretarded run-off seriously modified the natural stream flow
and caused many floods.
64946—36 21
306 THE WESTERN RANGE
Over large areas of the western range the original fertile, sponge-
like soil cover has been gashed and stripped off, exposing a sterile, less
pervious substratum. Deep gullies and gorgelike channels are com-
mon in the valleys and meadows, and slopes have been cut and carved
until mere islands of fertile soil remain. Watersheds that formerly
yielded only steady, quiet-flowing streams and rivers now produce
devastating floods when rains come and a shrunken, inadequate flow
at other times. Depletion of plant cover has not only reduced the
utility of the unregulated range land but with it has come such a
biologic upset to watershed lands that they have become a menace to
agricultural, industrial, and social welfare. The full meaning of this
threat to the well-being of the entire range country becomes clearer
as the havoc wrought is examined in detail.
FLOODS
The flood menace in the West has no static quality. As the
effects of depletion are brought into action by abnormalities of storm,
floods increase year by year in frequency and intensity. Scarcely
a day passes during the period of summer rainstorms that western
newspapers of one locality or another do not carry accounts of de-
struction by water and mud-rock flows. To be sure, such catas-
trophes are very different from the great inundations that the
easterner has learned to expect from protracted heavy rains and
melting snow. High water, sometimes reaching flood proportions,
is also common in the spring in many western streams. But sum-
mer flash floods resulting from a single brief intensified storm or
so-called cloudburst may be equally destructive of life and property.
A stream course may be dry one minute and the next filled to the
brim by a rush of silt- and debris-laden water that within the hour
will be utterly gone. Not a drop of rain may have fallen in the
valley lowlands upon which such sudden floods debouch. The only
warning to the victims may have been the constant threat of plant
depletion on watersheds above them — a portent only too seldom re-
vealing its full meaning in advance. Without doubt the flood prob-
lem is acute and is becoming of increasingly greater significance in
all the range States.
For the past 40 years floods, of a severity to which boulder-strewn
fields and valleys bear evidence, have been increasing over the entire
length and breadth of Utah. Between Ogden and Salt Lake City
15 canyons in the Wasatch Mountain front have within the past
few decades produced such floods — all originating on depleted, pri-
vately owned range lands representing a total of only a few hundred
acres and but a small portion of each individual watershed. In 1923,
and again in 1930, floods and mud-rock flows pouring forth from
certain of these canyons exceeded anything which has occurred in
that area for at least 20,000 years (10). Boulders weighing as
much as 200 tons were carried into the valley, farm lands were
ruined, homes and other improvements were destroyed, and lives
were lost (fig. 66). In 1932 at least 27 important watersheds in the
State flooded. An investigation of these areas by State and Fed-
eral agencies revealed that this serious situation has developed
largely since settlement and that depleted range lands are the chief
source of flood waters.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
307
Several drainages in Colorado, tributary to the general area sur-
rounding Denver, are highly susceptible to rapid run-off and peri-
odically produce major floods. From a special examination of the
watersheds, made in 1934 it was readily determined that, while the
flood menace in this locality was already pronounced, still more
serious flooding could be expected if depletion of vegetation con-
tinued. There is little doubt that the Pueblo floods of 1921 were
due in part to depleted watersheds. They swept the entire Arkan-
sas River Valley from Florence 30 miles west of Pueblo to the
State line, causing tremendous waste of property and heavy loss of
life.
FIGURE 66.— PROPERTY AND IMPROVEMENTS DEVASTATED BY MUD-ROCK
FLOWS.
Sweeping out of the overgrazed watersheds in Davis County, Utah, mud-rock flows,
carrying boulders weighing as much as 200 tons, devastated 1,800 acres of the most
valuable garden, orchard, and farm land in the State, wrecked homes and farm
buildings, and blocked or washed out highways and railroads. Such catastrophes are
common in varying degrees of severity throughout the depleted range areas of the
West.
Some of the most serious floods resulting from depletion of the
plant cover of watersheds have occurred in California, and among
these the Tehachapi flood of 1932 stands out as a glaring example
of effect of misused range lands. In September 1932 the concentra-
tion of water from a heavy rain storm near Tehachapi Pass un-
leashed its fury on the valley lowlands and caused loss of life and
property.' The 1934 floods, caused by destruction of vegetation by
fire on the watersheds near Los Angeles, attracted Nation-wide
attention because of the damage caused. Sacramento Valley ex-
perienced a disastrous flood in 1928 as a result of rapid run-off from
the exposed slopes of its catchment basins. These are examples of
major floods. Other minor floods too numerous to mention, have
occurred periodically over much of the interior basin and southern
coastal region, building up a staggering total of losses.
308 THE WESTERN RANGE
In contrast to the spectacular mountain floods oftentimes accom-
panied by mud-rock flows, are the more common floods of silt-bear-
ing water in the Southwest and Colorado Plateau. In these regions
of more gentle gradients and sparsely-vegetated slopes, floods have
always occurred, but historical evidence together with field investi-
gation clearly indicate that they are yearly becoming more prevalent
and more destructive.
In any presentation of the western flood problem it cannot too
strongly be stressed that the communities desolated, the individuals
bankrupt and bereaved by these floods have in many instances paid
in life and property for the privileges enjoyed by themselves or
others in the free use of watershed range. The evidence of this is
clear. In the Escalante River Valley in southern Utah, for example,
the first devastating floods occurred approximately 15 years after
the settlers began to crowd the ranges with their herds. Since that
time annual floods have been almost the rule, and in the single year
of 1932, 19 major floods raged through portions of this valley, in-
undating agricultural land and tearing away sections of the fertile
alluvial valley fill. In 1921, five drainages in western Colorado
flooded during a storm that brought only 2.5 inches of precipitation
over a 4-day period. The waters from one of the canyons washed out
several miles of railroad track and those from another cut a new
stream channel directly through the town of Lake City. Run-off
from depleted range lands on the tributaries of the Virgin River in
southern Utah swelled the river's flow sufficiently during the early
spring of 1931 to take out bridges, inundate agricultural lands, and
raise the flow of the Colorado River at Boulder Dam higher than had
been anticipated for the whole of the Colorado River drainage.
The agricultural lands of the San Juan and Paria River Valleys
in Utah have similarly been inundated and eroded, resulting in the
abandonment of settlements. Historical evidence shows that the
first serious flood came approximately 15 years after settlement, and
that from then on catastrophes appeared with increasing frequency.
Further substantiation is given by Olmstead's (96) investigations
in the Gila River Valley in Arizona where he found a remarkable
difference between the destructive floods occurring during the first
two decades of the present century and those of the early days. The
earlier floods spread out over the countryside with relatively little
destruction. The tearing out of great channels and depositing of
sterile sands on fertile soil are entirely recent phenomena.
EROSION
ACCELEKATBD EROSION FOLLOWING RANGE ABUSE
To understand what erosion is doing to western watersheds today,
it is essential to have clearly in mind what is meant by accelerated
erosion, which followed misuse of land and forage, as distinguished
from the normal erosion that has always been in operation. Ac-
celerated erosion is a relatively rapid process, removing from the
slopes and even flats soil that was ages in the making. Abnormal in
action, it proceeds from man-made rather than natural causes. It is
induced chiefly by the destruction of plant cover and the consequent
disturbance of the natural balance so necessary to a stabilized soil
surface. Accelerated erosion is of several types, the most important
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION 309
being sheet, gully, and trench erosion caused by water, and another
form of sheet erosion caused by wind. Gully and sheet erosion are
most pronounced on steep mountainous slopes, trench erosion in the
low gradient valleys characteristic of the Southwest, and wind ero-
sion on flat desert or plains country. The seriousness of accelerated
erosion is often not recognized until the eroded soil and other debris
is deposited destructively on valley floors and along stream channels.
FIGURE 67.— MOUNTAIN SLOPES STRIPPED BARE.
When vegetation that has bound and protected the soil and retarded run-off on the
mountain slopes is destroyed, the run-off washes away the soil itself which will re-
quire thousands of years to replace. Often a sterile rocky substratum is exposed, as in
the above foreground. The vegetated islands of soil that remain as shown in the
background of this view, will soon be eroded and gone unless the plant cover on the
denuded slopes is restored.
On the mountain slopes, under sheet and gully erosion, soil re-
moval can proceed at a terrific rate. Following the depletion of
vegetation, water from heavy rains flows rapidly over the surface,
transporting fine soil material with it. By this process a sheet of
the fertile top soil has been removed from millions of acres of range
land. Where soil texture and topography abet this action, the entire
soil cover may be removed (fig. 67) . In most situations, gullies also
develop early and continue throughout the erosion cycle as the
dominant process. In the early phases of gully formation, parallel
stringers, often called "shoestring erosion", streak the eroding slopes
and form a branched system of deep cuts and washes as they increase
in size.
Trench erosion or arroyo cutting is most common in the Colorado
Plateau and Southwestern regions, where alluvial-filled valleys are
being deeply cut with a labyrinth of vertical-walled channels.
Many such trenches, however, have also cut through valleys in Call-
310 THE WESTERN RANGE
fornia, Oregon, and elsewhere. Trench erosion arises usually from
a break in the surface soils in which the run-off concentrates and
channels rapidly through the valley flats. As the initial trench or
arroyo advances by headward cutting, tributary trenches develop
wherever lateral drainages are intersected and in turn grow into
major cuts, each one excavating huge sections of the valley floor.
Wind erosion tears away and lifts in air the finer soil particles
from the inadequately protected surface, at the same time that
coarser particles are swept along the ground and oftentimes heaped
into dunes. In some instances what is known as "desert pavement",
consisting of residual rock fragments on the surface of the ground,
characterizes the advance stages of this process.
Destruction caused by accelerated erosion on range lands, while
costly in social and economic values everywhere, differs considerably
in the different physiographic types in the western range areas.
These types are, broadly, the mountain regions, the Colorado Plateau
and the Southwest, the northern desert valleys, and the Great Plains.
EROSION IN THE MOUNTAIN EEGIONS
Erosion and soil wastage present one of their most serious problems
on the steeper grazing lands. From the mountains of the Pacific
Coast to the eastern slopes of the Rockies, the utility of many over-
grazed watersheds has diminished appreciably through the process
of erosion. Slopes once comparatively uniform and smooth are
marred with sharp niche-like gullies cut to subsoil or sterile bed-
rock. Mountain meadows have been drained and ruined following
the development of gullies and channels in their deep mellow soil.
Large areas have had part or all of the topsoil removed by sheet
erosion — less striking than gully or trench erosion, but none the
less serious. The full meaning of complete removal of the topsoil
by sheet erosion under the dry climatic conditions of the West
becomes very evident when it is realized that since the recession of
ancient Lake Bonne ville that occupied basins in the intermountain
region 50,000 years ago, only 10 to 14 inches of humic soil has been
formed on the most favorable sites of its old beaches and deltas.
What this situation amounts to on mismanaged mountain range
in Utah was brought out by a special investigation of a seriously
depleted watershed area in Davis County. Here overgrazing and
fire had so stripped off the plant coyer as to permit 18 to 36 inches
of topsoil to be removed on approximately 21 percent of the area;
6 to 18 inches on 22 percent; up to 6 inches on 39 percent; and on
only 18 percent of the area was the soil undisturbed. Badly de-
pleted portions are ripped and torn by gullies 3 to 4 feet deep.
Stream channels in this area have recently been scoured almost to
their heads and in their lower reaches have been cut as much as
70 feet in depth and 200 or more feet wide.
In Idaho and Oregon the slopes of many drainage basins of the
Owyhee River are badly eroded and streams which formerly flowed
between grassy banks are now seeping along through sandy washes
or flowing through raw cuts with steep, sloughing sides. On foot-
hill tributaries of the Snake River in this same general region both
sheet and gully erosion are also very evident. In California severe
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
311
gully and sheet erosion characterizes a large area of overgrazed land
in coast drainage from Ventura County southward, and in the San
Joaquin and Sacramento River basins. In other parts of this State
erosion is present in varying degrees of seriousness, and is particu-
larly evident on mountain meadows subject to concentrated grazing.
COLOEADO PLATEAU AND SOUTHWESTERN REGIONS
Accelerated erosion on the Colorado Plateau and in the South-
west is in general similar to that in mountainous areas but distinc-
tive in detail. In the depleted intermediate and lower elevational
zones in these regions channeling and arroyo cutting of alluvium-
filled valleys is virtually eating the heart out of the best grazing and
agricultural lands (fig. 68). On depleted mesa lands the topsoil
FIGURE 68.— FERTILE VALLEYS DEEPLY TRENCHED.
This view of upper Kanab Creek, Utah, illustrates the channel-cutting resulting from
range depletion. Recent erosion has channeled thousands of tons of soil out of the
valley floors. Trenches 20 to 100 feet deep and 200 to 500 feet wide are common
where, prior to settlement, only shallow streams or drainage depressions existed. In
this way, large tracts of fertile and productive land in the Southwest have been ruined.
has been blown or washed away in sheets, leaving accumulations of
loose sand, gravel, and rock, or pedestal-like remnants of soil. In
the higher elevational zones that have not escaped range deteriora-
tion, meadow lands are deeply channeled and drained of their former
source of natural subirrigation.
The general acceleration of erosion on the Colorado River drainage
basin north of the Grand Canyon was determined by a survey made
in 1932 and 1933. Of 115 drainages examined upon which unregu-
lated grazing had been permitted, 111 were eroding at a rate con-
siderably more rapid than normal. In Wyoming and northern Utah
raw gullies were frequent and active stream-bed channeling not un-
common. In Colorado and southern Utah the most serious type
of erosion was the trenching or channeling of the loose, fertile soil
312 THE WESTERN RANGE
deposits of the productive valleys, of which Kanab Creek, Johnson
Valley, and the Virgin and San Juan Rivers in southern Utah are
typical.
Kanab Creek formerly flowed over the floor of a broad, fertile,
well-vegetated valley. In the relatively brief period since range
livestock were first introduced by the Mormon pioneers, its whole
character has changed and it is now confined to a miniature "Grand
Canyon" with a channel 30 to 100 feet deep and 200 or more feet
wide. Johnson Valley, now called Johnson Wash because of the
trenching of the previously aggraded valley floor, is cut with a many-
branched arroyo which reaches a depth of 40 feet and a width of
more than 300 feet, from which thousands of tons of soil have recently
been removed. In the lower valley of the Virgin River heavy silt
deposits swept by accelerated erosion from its upper reaches are so
clogging the stream flow as to send it meandering over the valley
floor, where it is removing additional surface soil and inundating
agricultural lands.
In the Southwest abnormal erosion has caused some areas to
resemble natural badlands. Portions of the Rio Puerco and Rio
Salado Valleys in New Mexico, and the San Simon and San Pedro
Valleys in Arizona have been carved with deep channels which
divide the valley floor into innumerable isolated segments. In the
valley of the Rio Puerco, where only small channels existed prior to
1885, destructive erosion has cut trenches 200 to 500 feet wide in the
fertile soil of its floor.
A survey of the upper Rio Grande drainage in New Mexico above
Elephant Butte Dam found accelerated erosion within all of nine
vegetative types. Within this area only 25 percent of the water-
shed is in fair to good condition, 35 percent is characterized by
advanced erosion, and 40 percent by excessive erosion. The water-
sheds of the Rio Grande tributaries below Embudo, N. Mex., have
a badly depleted cover of range vegetation and discharge enormous
quantities of silt and floodwater into the main channel. This silt,
carried down and deposited in the low -gradient channel of the Middle
Valley, has so built up the channel as to slow down the flow
of the river, causing the water-logging of 80,000 acres of formerly
productive farm land.
Other studies by the Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment
Station, on the Salt River watershed in Arizona, show that an average
of 432 cubic feet per acre of topsoil and soil-forming materials is
lost annually from typical deteriorated brush ranges.
On mesa areas, such as those on the Navajo Indian Reservation,
great sheets of surface soil from the grassland have been blown
or washed away as a direct result oi) grazing abuse, and arroyos
30 to 50 feet wide and 10 to 20 feet deep, with tributary gullies
8 feet wide and 5 feet deep, are common where originally only shal-
low streambeds and depressions were present.
The higher plateau grazing areas which have been used with no
regard to watershed values have been severely channeled. The lower
Rio Jemez drainage is a typical example. Here arroyos have been
cut through at least 25 percent of the meadows, and 40 to 50 percent
more are in the process of cutting.
WATERSHED PROTECTION 313
NORTHERN DESERT VALLEY REGIONS
The erosion picture presented by northern desert valley lands,
chiefly of the Great Basin region in Nevada and Utah, is distinctive.
In these valleys, although the heavy rainstorms of summer are often
of sufficient intensity to cause trouble, the chief erosive agent is wind.
Over large areas much of the topsoil has been blown away, and
clumps of grass and shrubs, whose roots hold small hummocks of
soil together, mark the scattered spots where overgrazing has failed
to kill the plant cover. New sand dunes forming in these valleys
present a serious threat. One particularly badly overgrazed area
near Grantsville, Utah, has been the source of severe dust storms
which have blanketed Salt Lake City and Ogden. "Blow-out" holes,
12 feet deep and 4 to 6 acres in extent, have been formed and the
surface soil has been stripped or shifted over an area of more than
35,000 acres.37
The lowland areas of the Columbia River Basin in Idaho, Oregon,
and Washington are suffering also from wind erosion, and sand
dunes have formed in many localities. As some of these lands re-
ceive more precipitation than do the Utah and Nevada lowlands,
they are more generally eroded by water.
GREAT PLAINS
The erosion on range lands of the Great Plains contributes a con-
siderable portion of the great silt load carried by the Missouri,
Platte, Arkansas, Red, and other rivers, with their tributaries. Even
in the Badlands of Montana and the Dakotas, plant-cover depletion
is accelerating erosion greatly beyond its normal rapid rate. Gully
erosion is less widespread and less serious, however, than sheet ero-
sion because of soil, topographic, and climatic conditions.
Dust storms, as a manifestation of sheet erosion, have become in-
creasingly more frequent and serious in the Plains region. Thou-
sands of acres of true grazing land from the Dakotas south to Texas,
upon which the sod had been broken for agricultural purposes, are
the main source of these storms. Areas suffering merely from over-
grazing have contributed somewhat toward the dust supply, but
their role is overshadowed by the dust resulting from the injudicious
attempt to cultivate land unfit for that purpose. Several localities,
generally smaller than the famous "dust bowl" of eastern Colorado
and western Kansas, are devastated and have in turn ruined many
acres of adjacent lands.
The examples of erosion and flood damage specifically cited might
be multiplied indefinitely. However, the illustrations presented
show that the curse of floods and* erosion that has developed over
the West in the last half century is a serious and rapidly increasing
menace. Floods of accelerating frequency and severity, and slopes
and valleys riddled with gullies and chasms bear convincing testi-
mony to man's misuse of the range resources.
87 According to unpublished data of the Soil Conservation Service prepared by G. S.
Quate and H. J. Helm in 1935.
314 THE WESTERN RANGE
CAUSES OF ACCELERATED EROSION AND FLOODS
That the present serious problem of floods and erosion on the
western watersheds is the result of past misuse of range lands is
substantiated by extensive evidence of the part played by various
contributing factors. Of these the most prominent are the physical
factors of climate, soil, and topography and the biological factors
of vegetation and organic matter in and on the soil.
CLIMATE
Climate exerts its influence directly on erosion and floods through
the amount, kind, and intensity of precipitation and indirectly
through its effect on vegetation and soil. Even this direct effect has
many ramifications, however, when it is considered that although
the West is essentially arid, and some areas in the lower deserts
receive as little as 3 to 4 inches of rainfall annually, other areas
in the higher mountains receive as much as 60 inches. The kind
and intensity of precipitation vary greatly also. At the lower ele-
vations precipitation falls largely as rain, and in many places in
storms of sufficiently great intensity to result in rapid accumulations
of water having great erosive force. Because of the naturally scant
protective cover of vegetation in the arid and semiarid portions,
rains relatively light in character as compared to those in more
humid areas may run off so readily and develop into such violent
floods that they are classed as torrential. In the mountain areas a
large proportion of the annual fall comes as snow, which is released
as free water only during the spring and early summer. Rains that
fall on steep mountain slopes may be intense, greatly increasing
the danger of erosion on any soil not bound in place or otherwise
inadequately protected by plants ; or they may be moderate, causing
severe erosion only where plant depletion is most serious and topog-
raphy steepest.
Hard rains falling on denuded land, whether in the desert regions
or in the mountains, result in rapid accumulations of water that
inevitably cause the gullying of slopes and trenching of valleys.
If there are depleted range areas in the West today on which erosion
is only slight or moderate, it is principally because rainfall there
is uniformly low in intensity, slope is negligible, or the soil is
unusually porous.
The indirect relation of climate to accelerated erosion and floods
is exerted through the effect of drought, high temperature, wind,
and high rates of evaporation on vegetation and soil. Undoubtedly
drought, particularly protracted, drought, has contributed greatly
to the decline of the watershed value of certain areas by killing on
some of the plants or limiting their growth and reducing their
density. The death or diminished growth of the plant means, in
turn, a general depletion of the plant cover and less physical pro-
tection to the soil. During droughts, the physical properties of the
soil are modified by excessive drying, its power of cohesion is les-
sened, and it becomes more susceptible to the forces of wind and
water. The stage is thus set for destructive erosion.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION 315
High temperatures and winds, causing excessive evaporation, act
on the plants and soil in exactly the same manner as drought.
Regardless of how much precipitation occurs, it is of no value as
a source of water for plants or for stream flow if it evaporates
almost as rapidly as it falls. These various forms of the action
of climate on the soil and vegetation mantle are serious enough when
soil and topography also favor erosion and flooding, but their effects
are most pronounced when the plant cover has been depleted by
overgrazing and fire.
SOILS
The inherent nature of the soil plays an important role in de-
termining the rate of erosion and the percent of the total precipi-
tation which runs off the surface of any area. Some soils, deficient
in plant nutrients, are capable of supporting only a sparse cover
of vegetation which influences their absorptive powers but little and
affords them a minimum of physical protection against erosion.
The relative erosibility of different soils is greatly influenced by such
physical properties as their imperviousness to water and their water-
holding capacity. The Mancos shales of certain parts of the West,
for example, produce soils that are highly impervious, permitting
rapid run-off of a large part of the precipitation and a consequent
rapid natural erosion. In contrast, soils from the Wasatch con-
glomerate naturally absorb water readily, permit less run-off, and
consequently are not easily eroded. All soils, however, regardless
of their inherent nature and the parent rock from which they
are derived, absorb precipitation most readily and are subject
to a minimum of erosion when they are well clothed with vegetation.
TOPOGRAPHY
Topography of a watershed is a significant factor in determining
the extent of erosion and character of run-off. Steepness of slope
naturally influences velocity of run-off; and since the transporting
power of water increases as the fourth to sixth power of its velocity,
it is evident that soil movement would be greater on steeper slopes,
other factors being equal. This in turn increases its cutting power.
Increased velocity means also that the flowing water passes over the
surface more rapidly, thus allowing less time for absorption and
penetration. Gravity creep of certain soils on steep slopes, inde-
pendent of the influence of water, is noticeable in some instances,
indicating that the natural balance which is so necessary to soil
stability hangs very precariously.
The topographic influence expresses itself also in its modification
of the action of general and local climate. Rugged, broken country
is less likely to suffer wind erosion than flat or rolling areas where
winds can be generated and blow unobstructed with great force.
The action of high temperatures and evaporation vary with exposure
to the sun's rays, as is evident in the contrast between plant cover
and soil mantle on the north and south slopes of canyons and
mountains.
316 THE WESTERN RANGE
Nearly all the effects of topography, however, as in the case of
climate or soil, are greatly modified by the plant growth. Under any
but extreme conditions of climate, soil, and topography this vegeta-
tion mantle is the critical factor of the watershed. Even on slopes
steeper than the angle of repose, soils are built up under it. Fur-
thermore, vegetation is the one factor that man can control. Thus
the major interest in analyzing the causes of accelerated run-off and
erosion centers on the part played by the plant cover.
VEGETATION
On the nonforested arid and semiarid range lands of the West
herbaceous and shrubby plants form the vegetation which furnishes
protection to the watersheds. Even on forest lands, and especially
those open forest types which are suitable for grazing, the herbace-
ous and shrubby plant growth materially supplements the value of
the timber growth and its litter in affording adequate watershed
protection. This is especially true in the open orchard-like stands
of the pinon- juniper type, where only a small proportion of the
soil is directly protected by tree growth. As in forests (#, 86),
it is not the areal growth alone which is of value. The total plant
cover, the root system, the litter, and the humic horizon of the
upper layers of the soil composed chiefly of decaying organic mat-
ter, all make up the range cover of value in the protection of water-
sheds. In the main, the vegetation present under virgin conditions
represents the type developed by natural forces best adapted to the
specific climatic, soil, and other conditions of the particular site.
It has been rather generally recognized for a number of years
that the protective cover on range lands has a marked effect in con-
trolling soil erosion and abnormal run-off. Where overgrazing and
fire have been rampant, serious consequences were observed; and
where some degree of protection has been afforded, favorable water-
shed conditions have prevailed. Restoration of the plant cover on
denuded areas has indicated also its beneficial effect. For example,
Manti canyon in Utah (108), which was overgrazed badly begin-
ning in the late 70's, produced a number of serious floods between
1888 and 1902. In 1903 this area was included within the Manti
National Forest and, after 5 years of complete protection followed
by regulated grazing, the range cover has been greatly improved,
accelerated erosion halted, and all flooding of any consequence
stopped.
The general outcome of the many observations on the relation of
range cover to conservation of the watershed resource was, how-
ever, one of confusion, as shown by the differences in concepts held
by some geologists, engineers, ecologists, and foresters. It became
apparent that the role of vegetation had to be ascertained quantita-
tively by detailed investigation. Research on this subject was ac-
cordingly undertaken and, though a vast amount of detailed work
still remains to be done, certain general concepts have already been
developed and proved.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
317
EFFECT OF DENSITY OF VEGETATION
The first of these investigations (51) of any consequence on west-
ern range land was instituted by the Forest Service on the Wasatch
Plateau, near Ephraim, Utah, in 1912, where a study was made of
the run-off and erosion from two grazing areas of about 10 acres
each, fairly similar except for the cover of vegetation. Area A
had an original plant density of 16 percent and Area B a density
of 40 percent. Both areas were grazed and for the 6 years, 1915 to
1920, the cover was maintained at the original densities. During
the period 1921 to 1923 Area A was allowed to revegetate until its
density approximately equaled that of Area B. From 1924 to 1929
both areas were grazed and maintained at equal densities. The
results from summer rains are given in table 55.
TABLE 55. — The influence of vegetation change on run-off percent and sediment
removed during summer precipitation period from two test areas on the
Wasatch Plateau
Values per acre for watershed A
Values per acre for watershed
B
A/B ratios
Plant density »
Surface
run-off1
Sediment
Plant
density »
Surface
run-off a
Sediment
Run-off
percent >
Sediment
Percent
16
Percent
10.33
8.74
5.49
Cubicfeet
133.8
105.0
19.2
Percent
40
40
40
Percent
2.52
3.03
5.23
Cubicfeet
24.7
37.3
7.7
Ratio
4.10
2.88
1.05
Ratio
5.42
2.82
2.48
16 to 40...
40
1 Plant density as here used is the percentage of total soil that is covered by the total spread of the plan?
growth.
1 Percentages are based on effective precipitation.
With area A in a depleted condition the run-off percent and sedi-
ment removed were approximately 4.1 and 5.4 times that from area
B. As the plant cover was gradually restored on the former, these
differences diminished until the ratios for run-off percent and sedi-
ment were only 2.9 and 2.8. Finally, when the densities of the plant
cover were made comparable, the run-off percent from the two areas
was practically the same, and the excess of silt removed from A
was reduced from 109.1 to 11.5 cubic feet.
This reduction of silt removed from area A following revegeta-
tion has far greater significance than merely the reduction of soil
movement, because of its indirect effect on the future rate of ab-
sorption and percolation of the soil. This is shown by studies (86)
conducted by the California Forest and Range Experiment Station,
in which slightly less than 2 percent of sediment was introduced into
clear water and allowed to percolate through a soil surface. It was
found that the rate of percolation of this muddy water amounted to
a reduction of 90 percent within 6 hours over the percolation rate
for clear water. The sealing of soil pores by sedimentation not only
immediately reduced the speed of percolation but this change re-
mained permanent since the subsequent use of clear water did not
restore the original percolation rate. This indicates clearly that
318 THE WESTERN RANGE
silt-laden water from eroding land tends to increase run-off by
decreasing absorption on all areas over which it passes.
In southern California, where water is extremely valuable, it is
desirable to save as much of the streamflow from mountain canyons
as possible. The construction of storage basins is costly and there
is a great dearth of suitable sites. A common practice, therefore, is
to divert the clear water emerging from such canyons over the gravel
beds at their mouths. The water is later pumped from the natural
underground storage basins for domestic use and irrigation. If,
however, the streamflow is muddy the gravels are quickly sealed
by the silt and the water runs off to the ocean, resulting in a scarcity
of the underground supply. It is vital, therefore, to prevent ero-
sion of the watersheds which would produce muddy streamflow.
EFFECT OF DIFFERENT STAGES OF DEPLETION
Studies conducted on the Boise River watershed in Idaho, with
the aid of a portable apparatus simulating natural rainfall, have
demonstrated the value of different plant types in preventing ero-
sion and conserving water on the granitic soils of that region. The
effects of varying intensities of rainfall, degree of slope, and dis-
turbance of soil were determined on comparable plots within four
plant types ranging from the annual weed, which represents the
most depleted type, to the bunchgrass, the most valuable. Under
all conditions of the experiment the average percentage of rainfall
which ran off and the amount of material eroded for the different
types is as shown in figure 69.
The bunchgrass type, which has the greatest forage value of any
local range type, and to which most grazing land in this area will
ultimately revert if unabused, yielded very little run-off and silt.
The downy chess and needlegrass-lupine types, which have suc-
ceeded the bunchgrass on overgrazed ranges at the lower and higher
elevations, respectively, are distinctly less effective watershed covers.
The manner in which these two types contribute to rapid run-off and
erosion is shown by the fact that, on the average, 25.5 percent of the
precipitation on the downy-chess cover and 47.6 percent on the
needlegrass-lupine cover were unabsorbed. Further, as this water
ran off it carried the equivalent of 2,017 and 4,783 pounds of soil
per acre from the respective types. The annual-weed type affords
far less protection than any of the others, permitting a 60.8 percent
run-off which transported an equivalent of 15,280 pounds of soil
per acre.
The characteristic root systems of the plants in the various types
studied, as sketched in figure 69, indicate that for this investigation
a dense mat of fine roots near the surface of the soil served best
in protecting the soil from accelerated erosion and in obtaining
maximum absorption.
The contribution of percent of slope, disturbed soil, and intensity
of rainfall to these results is shown in table 56, which is a further
IN WATEBSHED PROTECTION
319
break-down of figure 69. A change in percent of slope was mate-
rially noticeable in modifying run-off in the downy chess type only,
where excessive loss of water occurred on slopes greater than 30
percent. The unexpected decrease in the run-off from the steeper
slope in the needlegr ass-lupine type is attributed to the coarser tex-
ture of the soil on these slopes. Erosion was accelerated, however,
by steeper slopes in every type except the bunchgrass. Disturbed
soil as compared to undisturbed gave much the same effect as in-
creased percent of slope. In this case decreased run-off following
disturbance of the soil in the needlegrass-lupine type is due to the
increase of absorption caused by loosening of the surface. High
rainfall intensity accelerated both run-off and erosion from all types
except the bunchgrass, which continued to afford suitable protection
to the soil even when the intensity of the rainfall was doubled.
ANNUAL WEED
5% DENSITY
NEEDLEGRASS-
LUPINE
30% DENSITY
DOWNY CHESS
25% DENSITY
Run- off
Eroded material
FIGURE 69.— THE MOST DESIRABLE FORAGE PLANTS ARE COMMONLY THE BEST
WATERSHED PROTECTORS.
Run-off and erosion from rainfall are negligible where the bunchgrasses predominate —
the highly palatable virgin-range cover characteristic of south-central Idaho. Both
run-off and erosion are very pronounced where other plants have succeeded bunch-
grass because of overgrazing. The greatest percent of run-off and the largest amount
or eroded material come from annual weed cover — a plant cover which is an in-
fallible expression of over utilization. A many-branched, fibrous root system is an
important factor in retarding soil removal and aiding absorption.
320
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 56. — Run-off and amount of erosion (induced by artificial storms of 1.80
inches on four range types on the Boise River watershed) as influenced by
steepness of slope, conditon of soil, and rate of rainfall
Cover type
Run-off1
Average *
Slope
Soil
Rainfall >
30 per-
cent
40 per-
cent
Undis-
turbed
Dis-
turbed «
Low
High
Bunchgrass
0.5
12.2
55.6
56.0
0.3
38.7
44.3
65.6
0.5
23.4
49.7
58.2
0.3
27.6
40.1
63.4
0.4
16.5
41.6
57.2
0.4
34.5
54.5
64.4
0.4
25.5
47.6
60.8
Downy chess . .
Needlegrass-lupine
Annual weeds .
Average '
40.0
37.2
32.8
32.8
28.8
38.4
Cover type
Erosion »
Average *
Slope
Soil
Rainfall
30 per-
cent
40 per-
cent
Undis-
turbed
Dis-
turbed «
Low
High
Bunchgrass
6
395
4,660
4,790
6
3,640
4,874
25, 770
6
939
3,359
12,006
6
3,095
6,320
18, 554
6
578
2,960
12, 976
6
3,456
6,573
17,584
6
2,017
4,791
15,280
Downy chess .
Needlegrass-lupine
Annual weeds
Average '
2,508
8,573
4,078
6,994
4,139
6,905
i Percent of rainfall applied.
1 Pounds per acre.
» Low =0.03 inches per minute for 60 minutes. High =0.06 inches per minute for 30 minutes.
« Each figure represents the average of tests on 12 5-milacre plots.
* Artificial disturbance of surface to simulate trampling by livestock.
• Each figure represents the average of tests on 24 5-milacre plots.
The results of this study show vividly the relation of the decline
of plant cover and grazing values to the decline of watershed values.
It is observed throughout, as has been demonstrated in other sections
of this report, that the bunchgrass type, which because of its high
forage value suffers most severely on unmanaged ranges, is the
most effective in stabilizing run-off and erosion. The other three
types, which are actual invaders of depleted bunchgrass land, de-
cline in watershed protection value approximately as they decline
in forage value ; and when the annual weed stage is reached — the in-
fallible expression of severe overgrazing — both forage and watershed
values have been reduced to the lowest point attainable under a plant
cover.
EFFECT OF DEPLETION ON ABSORPTION
That vegetation has a definite and very important part in con-
serving precipitation on watersheds was substantiated by further
studies in the same general area. Measurements were taken of the
rate of absorption and percolation of surface water on paired plots,
each 1 foot square. One of the pair supported a single herbaceous
plant and the other was bare soil occurring between plants. Twenty-
three pairs were compared for plants typical of well-managed ranges
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
321
and 16 pairs for plants common on depleted ranges. The results are
shown in figure TO. That plots supporting desirable forage plants
absorb water more rapidly than contiguous bare plots or even than
plots supporting the less desirable plants, is readily understandable,
It is interesting to note, however, that bare-soil spots on well-
managed range were more absorbent than the bare places on depleted
range, owing to the better soil conditions induced by the surround-
ing vegetation and its wider spreading root systems. Equal quan-
tities of water applied on these plots penetrated approximately 5
inches on vegetated plots on managed range as compared to
inches on vegetated plots on depleted range.
WELL- MANAGED RANGE
DEPLETED RANGE
UNDER
PLANT
COVER
UNDER BARE
PLANT SOIL
COVER
FIGURE 70.— THE EFFECT OF DEPLETION ON ABSORPTION.
Where plants are present, the rate of absorption of water by the soil is materially in-
creased over that on bare soil. It is significant also that bare soil on well-managed
range land absorbs water more rapidly than similar spots on overgrazed range. The
data shown here are taken from averages obtained on plots on the Boise River water-
shed. Absorption under plant cover on well-managed range was at the rate of 0.44
inches per hour.
In every case the course of percolation appeared to follow plant
roots, demonstrating the superiority of extensive and fibrous roots,
characteristic of the perennial plants found on well-managed ranges,
over the more poorly developed root systems of plants typical of
depleted cover.
The necessity of maintaining an unbroken range cover, as dem-
onstrated on tne Boise River watershed, was further substantiated
by a general survey of the area made by the Forest Service. This
survey brought out the necessity for a plant-cover density of at least
30 percent to avoid erosion, since if grazing depletes the cover below
that point, run-off and erosion will be accelerated and the utility of
the watershed will be reduced.
64946 — 36 22
322 THE WESTERN RANGE
SOUTHWESTERN STUDIES CONFIBM RESULTS
A distinct correlation between the extent of range depletion and
degree of erosion was revealed in an investigation of range cover
and accelerated erosion on the upper Rio Grande watershed by the
Southwestern Forest and Range Experiment Station, in which ero-
sion was classified as moderate, advanced, and excessive. It was
founoll that range lands supporting a vegetation cover which had
deteriorated 7 to 40 percent in reference to virgin conditions was
eroding moderately; lands with a cover depleted 29 to 57 percent
were in an advanced state of erosion; and where the cover had
deteriorated 52 to 74 percent lands were eroding excessively.
An even more definite correlation between soil erosion and grass
cover was brought out in further studies by the Forest Service in
the Southwest. Here the annual run-off and soil erosion was meas-
ured from a grass range cover representing three degrees of deple-
tion on a 25-percent slope. With the range cover approximately
25 percent depleted, 22 percent of the annual precipitation was sur-
face run-off and the equivalent of 109 cubic feet of soil per acre was
eroded. With the cover approximately 50 and 75 percent depleted^
28 and 32 percent of the annual precipitation was surface run-on
and equivalents of 174 and 240 cubic feet of soil per acre were
eroded.
Further emphasis on the protection afforded the soil by a plant
cover is given in studies by F. L. Duley and M. F. Miller (44) on
agricultural land in Missouri. In this case, among other things, a
comparison was made between the run-off and erosion from barren
and sod-covered soil on slopes averaging about 3.7 percent over a
period of 6 years. Run-off from the sod-covered soil was equiva-
lent to 11.6 percent of the total rainfall, while run-off from the
barren soil was more than four times as much or 48.9 percent.
One hundred and twenty-three times as much soil was eroded from
the barren as from the sod-covered soil.
GEOLOGIC EVIDENCE
Geologic evidence obtained on the Davis County, Utah (10) and
on certain Colorado River watersheds (9) has shown that the dev-
astation of plant cover has been the major cause of accelerated
erosion and uncontrolled run-off on these areas. Recent channel
cutting and erosion has definitely exceeded any which has taken
place for the last 20,000 years in Davis County, illustrating the
unprecedented nature of the recent activity, at least in modern
geologic times. Since the deterioration of plant cover is the only
marked change in the factors effecting erosion and stream flow which
occurred since settlement, it is logical to ascribe the activity to that
source. On the Colorado River geologic evidence of the influence
of plant cover was determined by investigating the gradational
process of erosion on natural barren areas in which no acceleration
was found. At the same time, on the surrounding localities once
stabilized by a plant cover, erosion was accelerating. The deduction
was clear that vegetative depletion was the major factor causing
the present channeling and gullying on the formerly productive
lands in this drainage.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
323
DESTRUCTION OF VEGETATION BY FIRE GIVES COMPARABLE RESULTS
Depletion of vegetation by fire is of interest, since the results in
erosion and floods are similar to those from persistent overgrazing.
The La Crescenta flood in California is a dramatic illustration.
On New Year's Day, 1934, a general rain fell over the southern
California foothills including a 5,000 acre area that had been
severely burned 2 months previously. As presented in table 57,
the records of the California Forest and Range Experiment Sta-
tion show that the burned Verdugo and Pickens drainages received
approximately the same rainfall as the unburned areas to which
they are compared and yet the erosion and run-off on them was
tremendously greater. The most striking example was Pickens
Canyon, where run-off was increased fortyfold and erosion approxi-
mately one thousandfold.
TABLE 57. — Erosion and run-off from the La Crescenta flood area and on
comparable unfourned slopes
Watershed
Rainfall
Area
Watershed affected
Peak run-
off
Eroded ma-
terial
Burned
Unburned
Burned Verdugo
Inches
12.5
10.8
12.5
12.4
Square
miles
19.30
16.85
.48
.30
Percent
33
Percent
67
100
Cubic feet
per <te^ ond
320
53
1,000
25
Cubic yards
per square
mil*
30,700
56
50, 000
52
Unburned San Dimas
Burned Pickens
100
Unburned Fern and Bell -..
100
A comparison of the effects of burning litter from small plots
under controlled conditions was made under varying intensities of
rainfall on typical California soils. The results substantiate other
experiments in the destruction of organic cover in that superficial
run-off was 3 to 16 times as great from bared as from litter-covered
soil and erosion was about 1,200 times as great.
NET EFFECT ON STREAM FLOW
The results reported above are of great importance on all range
lands throughout the West which deliver water for irrigation, power,
or domestic use. Most of the usable stream flow comes from the
melting of snow and from the gradual delivery from springs and
seeps of snow water absorbed by the soil and broken-rock blanket
of the watersheds. The more porous the soil cover the more per-
colation there is and the greater the value of this underground
supply. It is the cover of vegetation, its litter, and related values
which maintain maximum percolation. With removal of the vege-
tation the soil pores are quickly sealed and percolation is greatly
reduced, as previously explained. Studies on the Wasatch Pla-
teau in Utah have shown that the soil is saturated in the spring
from having absorbed its maximum capacity. Spring surface run-
off of melting snow was found to be practically unaffected by dif-
ferences in the vegetation cover. On the experimental areas this
spring run-off amounted to about 95 percent of the yearly water
delivery by surface run-off.
324 THE WESTERN KANGE
The stream flow from the melting snow and underground water
supply is generally clear, except as it may pick up sediment which-
had previously accumulated in the stream channel or as it may cut
the sides of eroding channels.
On the other hand, in most of the range area summer rains furnish
little of the yearly usable stream flow, yet they are the ones which
cause most of the destructive floods. The soil eroded from slopes
by summer rains is usually deposited in stream channels to clog them
and to be carried further downstream by subsequent floods or high-
water stages.
Restoration of the range cover on watersheds will result in a mate-
rial reduction in surface run-off from summer rains and therefore
a slight reduction in total yearly surface run-off, but this will be far
more than offset by the control of erosion and flash floods with all
of the destruction that they imply.
Notwithstanding, attempts are occasionally made to justify such
great increases in summer rainfall run-off from depleted areas as
have been shown in the studies cited. The theory is advanced that
denuded watersheds yield a greater volume of stream flow than
watersheds clothed with water-using vegetation, and, therefore, that
destruction of the plant cover is no loss. The fallacy in such a
theory is apparent when the test of common sense is applied. If
true, then the ideal water-yielding watershed would approximate
the water-shedding ability of a tin roof. What water fell on its
nonabsorbent surface would immediately and completely run off;
after the storm had passed, its slopes and gutters would be even drier
than the stream beds fed by a denuded mountainside. But there i&
one great difference — one particular in which the watershed can
never attain the ideal "tin-roof" condition. Assume that to overcome
the undesirability of loss of rain water from the roof a barrel is
placed beneath the eaves, just as a storage reservoir may be built
in a canyon. One would say that it is only necessary to find a big
enough barrel or to build a "big enough reservoir to catch and hold
all the water that falls. But here the "tin-roof" analogy breaks
down, for the tin roof does not erode. How long would the effective
life of the barrel be if each storm brought down from the roof great
quantities of silt, mud, and debris such as is inevitably produced
from a devegetated watershed? The barrel is soon filled and the
precious moisture pours over its sides and is lost.
But, argues the theorist, much of this run-off will soak into the
soil and be conserved in that way — an argument that overlooks the
tests already cited, in which it has been shown how naturally porous
and water-absorbing soil surfaces are clogged and rendered imper-
vious by the fine silt washed over them. No experiments have as
yet given any indication that the water loss represented by water
use, transpiration, and evaporation by and from the plant cover of a
mountain slope is at all comparable with the water loss and soil
wastage from that same slope devegetated.
The only safe procedure is to maintain as effective a plant cover
as possible on all important watersheds. Further research is re-
quired to determine the degree to which cover may be modified and
still function satisfactorily in retarded run-off, in soil building and
binding, in percolation of water, and in other ways to control erosion
and stream flow.
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
325
OWNERSHIP OR CONTROL OF LAND AS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR IN
ACCELERATING RUN-OFF AND EROSION
Ownership or control of range-land watersheds has been a major
factor contributing to their present impaired watershed utility. This
relationship is practically identical with that shown in a prevous
chapter between the status of land tenure and plant depletion. The
situation on the five general classes of ownership, based on the best
information available from field surveys and published and unpub-
lished records of the Department of Agriculture, is presented in
table 58.
TABLE 58. — The watershed situation on western range lands
[In thousands of acres]
'Ownership class
Principal water-
yielding areas »
. Areas of minor water yield
Total
Con-
tribut-
ing
little if
any silt
Silting streams *
Silting streams *
Not silting streams s
Severe-
eroded
Mate-
rially
eroded
Severe-
ly
eroded
Mate-
rially
eroded
Severe-
eroded
Mate-
rially
eroded
Slight
or no
erosion
'National forests
61, 948
5, 335
4, 551
5,527
45, 617
3,357
3, 572
6,525
2,107
7,811
13, 671
3,157
3,900
2,736
12, 937
2,212
16, 128
35, 867
20,690
96, 155
1,131
7,081
20, 670
14, 581
77, 682
130
2,540
30,560
5,208
36, 823
1,529
9,644
46, 825
10, 248
56, 514
3,976
934
3,107
4,419
42,008
87, 954
48, 391
152, 005
65, 516
375, 547
Indian lands
Public domain, etc.4.
State, county, municipal. _.
•Private
Subtotal
23, 372
36,401
171, 052
121, 145
75, 261
124, 760
Total
122, 978
59,773
292,197
200,021
54, 444
729, 413
1 Range portion of watershed area furnishing 85 percent of water of major streams.
1 Area contributing an appreciable amount of silt to streams.
* Area eroding, more or less, but not contributing appreciably to silting of streams.
4 Includes grazing districts, public domain, and other Federal.
Management of the large acreage of privately owned range lands
-aimed primarily at the maximum utilization of forage has little
regard, except in a few notable cases, for sustained production and
for the watershed values on which nongrazing interests depend.
The production of maximum numbers of steers and lambs is domi-
nant throughout and water yield and erosion control only secondary,
if considered at all. The average depletion in grazing value of about
51 percent on private lands indicates, at least in part, why 145
million acres of the private land area is severely eroded and 160
million acres is materially eroded; also why approximately 195
million acres is contributing appreciably to the silting of streams.
These conditions indicate the seriousness of the watershed situation
on private lands.
Unregulated and highly competitive grazing on public domain,
part of which is now being placed under administration as grazing
districts, has resulted in practically universal depletion both of the
usable forage and the watershed values of these lands. Some other
Federal reservations are leased without regard for conservation of
the plant cover. Accordingly, there can be little surprise in the fact
that approximately 98 percent of these lands as a group is eroding
-more or less seriously and about 67 million acres are contributing
326 THE WESTERN RANGE
appreciable quantities of silt to major streams, even though a large
part occurs in the Great Basin, which does not drain into major
streams.
Unregulated grazing in past years on most Indian lands has had
the same effect. The extreme situation on the Navajo Reservation
and several smaller reservations on the Rio Grande watershed in the
Southwest accounts, in large part, for the high percentage of severely
eroding area.
Rental and leasing of most State-owned grazing lands to private
individuals have included no administrative supervision of the graz-
ing, and this has meant that no attention whatsoever has been paid
the preservation of watershed values, except as dictated by the self-
interest of the lessee in preservation of the cover for range use.
Range lands on the national forests, where land use has been under
administration with a watershed-protection objective, present a
vastly different picture. This is also true of some municipally
owned land, representing the water supplies of cities that do not
depend on sources within the national forests. In these cases the
general land-management policies have been influenced largely by
public welfare. The watershed value of grazing land has been rec-
ognized and coordinated with grazing and other uses. The result
has been that deterioration of the plant cover from overgrazing and
fire has been greatly reduced, efforts have been made to restore the
cover where depleted, and the yield of usable water and the soil con-
ditions in general are superior to those under any other land tenure.
Misused grazing land which has come under the administration of
the Forest Service from time to time has for the most part been
rehabilitated or started that way, instead of exploited further, with
the result that the present range cover on the national forests is on
an average depleted no more than 30 percent and only about 6.7
million acres are still eroding severely. These favorable results, no
less than the dire results depicted on unmanaged lands, dispel any
doubt that the same correlation which exists between ownership and
depletion exists also between ownership and destruction of watershed
resources, and for the same reason.
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCE OF ACCELERATED RuN-Orr
AND EROSION
The immediate effects of accelerated run-off and erosion from
unmanaged range lands are very serious, but they- are only one
chapter in the whole story. The economic and social outlook for
the entire western United States is being threatened by the conse-
quences of these combined destructive agencies. If this seems too
bold an assertion, it is only necessary to turn to other countries and
other times to find ample substantiation. Semple (1%4), supported
by such other eminent authorities as Sir Napier Shaw and J. Hann,
has ascribed the decline and fall of ancient civilizations to misuse
of land and the resulting erosion which cut away the productive top
soil of hills and fields, leaving in its place barren subsoil or sterile
deposits of sand and rock. Homes and lives were, under such cir-
cumstances, destroyed by floods, famine followed devastation of
agricultural land or loss of irrigation water and improvements, and
the inhabitants of established communities were turned into roving
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION 327
tribes because they could no longer sustain themselves at home.
Syria, Palestine, and other Mediterranean countries were the chief
sufferers because of climatic and physiographic features. China,
as another example, still suffers greatly at irregular but frequent
intervals from inundations that take a terrific toll in the great
Yellow Biver Valley and similar areas. The disconcerting history
of the water and watershed resources of old-world countries typi-
fies what is now happening on a limited scale in the western United
States and what will happen on a far greater scale if the natural
resources upon which civilization is fundamentally built are not
conserved.
Forage and water produced from the virgin range land were two
of the most important resources which enabled the pioneers to build
up the present civilization of the West as a monument to the hard-
ships which they endured. The natural vegetation of the range
furnished a source of feed upon which a great livestock industry
was established. The run-off from the grass-covered hills and moun-
tains contributed much of the water that made the settlement of
cities and development of intensive farming and industry possible.
Storage and diversion dams, ditches, and canals for irrigation
projects were planned and built. Municipal water systems with
dams and pipe lines brought water from mountain springs and
streams to urban homes. Dams, turbines, and electric transmission
lines harnessed water power and conveyed it to where it could be
put to its greatest use.
With these industrial and agricultural developments, the popu-
lation increased rapidly toward stabilization and a general atmos-
phere of security prevailed. Civilization had come and appeared
permanent. But within a short time the first indications of im-
pending disaster appeared in the realization of a few men and
organizations that range depletion was occurring and would soon
be reflected in reduced carrying capacity, loss of soil fertility, then
loss of the soil itself, accompanied by devastating floods and un-
stable stream flow. These first indications were not particularly
striking or evident and it has only been within the last years that
general concern has been expressed. The permanency of these in-
dustrial and agricultural undertakings, whether it is realized or
not, is dependent on the restoration and maintenance of as nearly
virgin watershed conditions as possible within the catchment basins.
If these virgin conditions can be improved upon, so much the better.
For the most part, the point is now no longer argued that wide-
spread deterioration of range lands is resulting in destruction of
the soil cover. And the realization is growing that this soil cover
lias taken geological ages to produce and when once gone cannot
be reproduced by any man-made process.
SOIL FERTILITY DESTROYED
Long before the topsoil is completely removed, harmful changes
are wrought in its fertility and productivity, especially in the or-
ganic content of soil which is so essential to the absorptive and
water-holding processes and the nitrogen content which is a prime
requisite of plant growth.
328 THE WESTERN RANGE
The value of nitrogen and organic material in determining the
quantity and quality of plant growth produced on a given soil has
been amply demonstrated in agricultural practice. Their reappli-
cation to soils already robbed of them by erosion and leaching re-
sulted in a greater than 4-fold average annual increase in vegetation,
over a period of 9 years, in recent tests in Utah (137). Of vast
importance in range-forage production, they are the first elements
of the soil to be lost through erosion.
In Idaho, in a survey of the Boise River watershed, soil samples
taken from moderately depleted ranges, where erosion was barely
under way, contained only 77 percent as much nitrogen and organic
matter as soil from the virgin range; and soils from heavily de-
pleted ranges already badly eroded contained only 61 percent as
much nitrogen and 55 percent as much organic matter. In Utah,
studies showed surface soils from an overgrazed, eroded area con-
tained an average of 31 percent less nitrogen and 38 percent less
organic matter than soils from the adjacent protected Salt Lake
City watershed. When wheat was grown on both eroded and non-
eroded soils, but otherwise under exactly the same conditions — 5.5
pounds of dry plant material was produced on a unit tract of eroded
soil and 12.1 pounds on noneroded soil. Nitrogen and organic mat-
ter in surface soil from lightly, moderately, and heavily eroded areas
in Davis County, Utah, were on the average 51 and 60 percent, 61
and 70 percent, and 75 and 84 percent deficient, respectively, as com-
pared with noneroded soil.
When the surface soil and its litter and humus layers are par-
tially destroyed, restoration of the range cover through the process of
plant succession is exceedingly slow; since each stage in the succes-
sion must have increasingly better soil conditions until at last the
climax range cover is attained. This slow process of soil building
through plant development is, however, not hopeless except in severe
eases of gullying and stripping where only geologic time can bring
about reclamation. Examples of the slow progress of rehabilitation
can be seen on certain areas on the national forests, which were
badly eroded at the time the forests were created and even after
more than 20 years of protection are still far from regaining the
grazing capacity of the virgin range. One of the main reasons for
this lag in productivity is deficient soil fertility.
IRRIGATION WATER SUPPLY AND IMPROVEMENTS THREATENED
Agricultural development of the West has been based largely on
the cultivation of the semiarid, fertile, and arable lowlands supplied
by life-giving streams from the more humid mountain areas (fig. 71).
Any modification of rate and quantity of run-off upon which
agricultural development is based is reflected in crop production,
and as agriculture is built for the most part upon the best possible
stream flow from the virgin watershed, the changes which have taken
place are inevitably for the worse. If little water from melting snows
is absorbed, extremely high peak flows result in the spring, at a season
when irrigation is not needed. Indispensable irrigation water is
poured out onto the waste lands or into the sea and lost. If the run-
off from summer storms rages forth from the canyons as floods, farms
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
329
and communities, which by force of circumstances are located in
floodable areas, will be devastated.
In other words, irrigated farming is based on usable run-off and if
adequate reservoir capacity is not available, requires naturally con-
trolled stream flow to sustain it properly. Natural flow of streams,
however, by no means furnishes sufficient water to make all the fertile
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PS a*
8 2.
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desert land blossom into productivity. Frequent water shortages
occur in all Western States. Efforts are being made to overcome
these shortages as rapidly as possible by building storage facilities
where suitable reservoir sites are available to catch and hold surplus
stream flow when it is not needed and release it when the parching
fields require more than would otherwise be provided. The very con-
siderable regulation of stream flow brought about by these improve-
ments has been the means of stimulating agricultural development in
many sections where it would have been impossible otherwise. Diver-
330
THE WESTERN RANGE
sion ditches and canals to conduct the water from rivers and streams
help complete the reclamation undertaken.
These irrigation structures of one kind or another in the range-
land States made possible the production of crops valued at nearly
$900,000,000 (169) in the single year of 1929. The maintenance of
the tremendous investment (table 59) in these works at maximum
efficiency is a paramount consideration. A greater share of the stream
flow upon which the irrigation depends is from the high mountain
areas (fig. 72) , many of which have been under national-forest admin-
istration for 30 years, thus insuring a measure of protection to the
natural stream flow. The resources of the intermediate and lower and
in some localities the higher elevational zones, however, have not been
under administration. These have suffered much depletion of their
plant cover from overgrazing and fire. As a consequence both the
permanent and intermittent streams issuing from them are silt laden.
TABLE 59. — Acreage of irrigated land, together ivith value of Iqnd, buildings, and
machinery, and the value of irrigation improvements for irrigated farms in
Western range-land States *
State
Irrigated area
Value of land,
buildings, and
machinery
Value of reser-
voirs and distri-
bution systems
1. Arizona
Acres
575, 590
Dollars
157, 290, 710
Dollars
73, 328, 197
2. California
4 746, 632
2, 535, 075, 016
450 967 979
3. Colorado ._
3, 393, 619
414, 180, 910
87, 663, 240
4. Idaho
2, 181, 250
316, 649, 034
84, 500, 354
6. Kansas *.
71, 290
13, 095, 069
1, 685, 652
6. Montana .
1, 594, 912
205, 027, 415
50, 319, 204
7. Nebraska....
532, 617
91, 773, 733
21, 386, 319
8. Nevada .
486, 648
63, 998, 051
15, 457, 931
9. New Mexico
527, 033
93, 160, 485
19, 834, 380
10. North Dakota
9,392
1, 452, 335
1, 267, 314
11. Oklahoma
1,573
1, 771, 383
160, 099
12. Oregon .
898, 713
171,919,001
38, 754, 548
13. South Dakota
67, 107
11, 576, 300
4, 502, 117
14. Texas. ..
798, 917
190, 141, 304
49,022,164
15. Utah
1, 324, 125
212, 258, 249
35, 669, 819
16. Washington.
499, 283
208, 738, 027
40, 561, 895
17. Wyoming
1, 236, 155
129, 692, 058
35, 153, 187
Total
18 944 856
4, 817, 799, 078
1, 010, 174, 399
iFrom Fifteenth Census (159).
CRITICAL CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST
At the present time a most critical situation from the irrigation
and maintenance of irrigation improvement standpoints exists in the
Southwest. This is true for three broad reasons : First, because such
large portions of the southwestern watersheds are in the zones which
have been badly depleted by unrestricted grazing; second, because
the prevailing soil types are very susceptible to erosion; and third,
because so many storage dams and diversion works are needed, creat-
ing an immense capital investment in the irrigation enterprise. Two
of the most active expressions of the situation are seen in the devas-
tating floods which occur and the growth of silt deposits in reservoirs
and other irrigation works.
In this region small floods frequently wipe out individual farms
and homes, and larger floods that inundate and spread destruction
over entire communities are comparatively frequent. The irrigation
WATERSHED PROTECTION
331
district in the Palo Verde Valley (148) on the Colorado Kiver in
California is often menaced by floods, a single one in 1922 causing
damage estimated at $1,000,000. To combat the flood threat this dis-
trict had, up to 1931, spent $2,400,000 on flood-protection work. The
Timbered watersheds practically
unused for grazing
Principal water-yielding grazed
areas (&5^°of water of major streams)
Area contributing an appreciable
amount of silt to streams
Area eroding but not contributing
materially to silt in streams
MILES
FIGURE 72.— IMPORTANT WATER- YIELDING AND SILT-PRODUCING AREAS.
Of the area yielding 85 percent of the flow of major streams, approximately 183,000,000
acres is grazed, 60,000,000 acres of which is contributing an appreciable amount of silt
to streams. An additional 292,000,000 acres of range lands are also contributing
appreciable quantities of silt to major streams. This means that the watershed utility
is being impaired and that river beds, storage reservoirs, ditches, and canals are filling
and clogging until their efficiency is seriously threatened.
lower Rio Grande Valley (151) in Texas and Mexico suffers also
from floods at more or less frequent intervals. One occurring in
1932 practically wiped out flood-protection improvements costing ap-
proximately $5,000,000 and caused damage to other property esti-
mated at $1,000,000 on the American side of the river alone.
332 THE WESTERN RANGE
The life of several storage reservoirs in the Southwest is being"
threatened by silt deposits which result from accelerated erosion in
their catchment basins. Such rivers as the Colorado normally trans-
ported considerable silt in suspension, but denudation of the virgin*
range cover has aggravated the problem tremendously. In New
Mexico the McMillan Reservoir on the Pecos River has been so com-
pletely silted that the dam is valuable only for diversion. Also in
New Mexico the capacity of the Elephant Butte Reservoir is being
reduced at the rate of approximately 20,000 acre-feet annually (73)..
The small Austin Reservoir in Texas, with an original capacity of
32,029 acre- feet, was filled almost completely with silt in 13 years
(HO). The new Boulder Dam is threatened with silting also, and
on the basis of recent measurements ($4) it is estimated it will fill
with eroded material in about 220 years; its effective life from the
water-storage standpoint will pass much sooner, if the silt load of the
Colorado River is not reduced.
Deposition of silt in irrigation canals that must carry a steady and
adequate flow of water to insure success of crops is a major problem
in some localities. For instance, in the highly developed Imperial
Valley of California, where crops valued at nearly $25,000,000 were
produced in 1929 (159) alone, the estimated average annual, cost of
silt disposal and control was $1,330,000, the average annual cost to
individual farmers being estimated at $2 per acre (54) •
Silting of canals and reservoirs means not only the loss of the con-
struction investment, but also the developments in agriculture, power r
etc., dependent upon the stored water. If a new site can be found
and a new dam built, their added cost must be saddled upon the
already overburdened water users. Rebuilding of silted reservoirs is
not, therefore, a feasible or reasonable solution of the erosion prob-
lem. Where no other site is available, even this expensive cure is
impossible. The dependent industries must collapse and the depend-
ent population be uprooted and thrust out to seek new homes and
livelihoods.
What accelerated erosion and rapid run-off following deterioration
of plant cover caused by overgrazing may mean to community wel-
fare is well illustrated by a small area on the San Juan River between
Shiprock, N. Mex., and Bluff, Utah. Shortly after this region was
settled, in about 1880, the excellent grazing lands available in the
valley and surrounding mountains were stocked heavily with sheepr
cattle, and horses, and the prosperous little community of Bluff was
built up. At one time this town was reputed to have the greatest
per-capita wealth of any town in the United States. By 1935, how-
ever, drastic changes had been wrought in the range cover and in
the dependent community. The density of range vegetation had
decreased from an average of 58 percent to less than 4 percent ; one-
half of the agricultural lands had been eroded away ; damage from
floods and erosion estimated at approximately $780,000 had been
caused; 10 lives had been taken by flood waters; property was tax-
delinquent; and the village population had declined from 600 to 50
people. This community literally signed its own death warrant by
disregarding the consequences of range destruction.
The great gullies and sterile plains now in evidence on the Navajo
Indian Reservation (189) are further indications of the ravages of
IN WATEBSHED PROTECTION
.333
-water on depleted range lands in the Southwest. The very existence
of these Indians, scanty as it is, is threatened by accelerated and unre-
strained erosion. Water holes are drying up and floods are common.
Against the processes of erosion of his own making, the red man's
last stand is futile. Fortunately, in the last few years the plight of
.this tribe has been recognized, and Government agencies are endeav-
•oring to restore the cover of vegetation and halt soil wastage.
THE COST OF WASTE WATER
The upper Colorado River Basin furnishes more than 85 percent
of the total flow of the Colorado River system. Nearly a billion
dollars of existing and potential developments are dependent on the
rflow of this river and its tributaries. Without question, where capi-
tal investments of such magnitude depend to a large degree upon
the flow of one river, its watershed must be carefully managed. If
the direct value of a billion-dollar investment is depreciated 20, or
-even only 10, percent by avoidable lack of control of stream flow, the
'financial loss is as inexcusable as it is appalling. The indirect social
and economic losses which cannot be measured in terms of dollars
would be even more striking, however, if they were fully understood,
since active soil erosion and floods attack the welfare not only of the
irrigationist near the headwaters of the stream, but also the citizen
of Los Angeles, who looks to the Colorado River to produce a portion
of his municipal water supply.
OCT. NOV. DEC. JAN. FEB. MAR. APR. MAY" JUNE" JULY ' AUG. SEPT.
REQUIREMENTS — — — NATURAL STREAM FLOW
•FIGURE 73.— RELATION OF AVERAGE ANNUAL FLOW OF BOISE RIVER TO AC-
TUAL WATER REQUIREMENTS.
'Under present average watershed and stream-flow conditions, and with present storage
facilities on the Boise River, water is wasted (on the average) after April 1, when dams
are filled to capacity. By June 24 stored water must be used, and this use lasts until
August 22, after which a shortage occurs which results in an average annual loss in
fross income estimated at $1,914,800. Additional storage is economically impracticable,
f spring run-off were to be delayed by careful management of the watershed cover, less
of the peak flow would be wasted and more water would be available in the late summer
for maturing crops.
Where the demand for usable irrigation water far exceeds the
supply, as, for example, in southern Idaho, the need for careful man-
agement of watershed resources can be vividly illustrated. Under
such circumstances it is absolutely necessary that streams produce a
maximum flow in the most usable form. Figure 73 pictures normal
•flow, the average actual flow as developed from stored water, and the
.average annual water shortage which arises on the Boise River. The
334
THE WESTERN RANGE
average annual waste of water down this river, owing to lack of
sufficient storage facilities, is approximately 448,000 acre-feet. On
June 24, on the average, the natural flow of the river drops below
requirements, and it is necessary to supply the deficiency from stored
water. The reservoirs which thus supplement the flow are drained,
on the average, by August 22. To provide for maximum-crop pro-
duction, however, water should be available through September in
a quantity of 272,632 acre-feet over and above the average flow dur-
ing this late-summer and early-autumn period.
Shortage-with
present peak flow
Shortage -with
delayed peak flow
100
THOUSANDS
200
OF ACRE -FEET
300
FIGURE 74.— PRESENT AVERAGE ACTUAL WATER SHORTAGE, CONTRASTED
WITH SHORTAGE IF PEAK FLOW COULD BE DELAYED 10 DAYS.
If it were possible to so manage the plant cover of watershed lands as to delay peak flow
of the Boise River 10 days — and indications are that some such delay might be accom-
plished— the average annual shortage of water could be reduced 55 percent, making
additional water available at the season when it is badly needed.
Obviously two courses appear to be open to correct this situation —
more storage or delayed spring run-off. Surveys have indicated that
additional storage facilities are economically unpractical. Accord-
ingly, delayed spring run-off appears to be the only feasible ap-
proach ; and while it cannot be definitely stated that intensive man-
agement will consummate this purpose on this already compara-
tively well-handled watershed, studies of absorption, penetration,
and retarded run^off made thus far; indicate that at least a more
satisfactory situation may be approached by properly controlling the
cover of vegetation, particularly that of the herbaceous and shrubby
plants. A 10-day delay in the peak flow, which would bring it
approximately at the peak of requirements, would result in an aver-
age annual shortage of only 123,000 acre-feet of water, instead of
the actual shortage of some 273,000 acre-feet (fig. 74) . This average
increase in available water, coming at a season when irrigation is
so urgently needed, would mean a material decrease in the $1,914,800
average annual loss in gross income that water shortage now causes.
The general theory of this discussion pertains to many watersheds of
the West, of which the Boise River is only one example upon which
data are available.
The proper management of the range coyer to delay run-off from
a specific watershed is not confined within the boundaries of the
watershed itself. Lowland areas of depleted plant cover entirely
outside the watershed may influence materially the yield of usable
water from a mountain watershed by contributing to early spring
dust storms. At the time that most serious dust storms originate,
the most important western watersheds are covered with a winter's
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION 335
accumulation of snow which should melt slowly to insure properly
regulated stream flow. However, when dust from depleted lowland
areas is deposited in the mountains, the snow cover melts perceptibly
faster. The dust cover on the snow absorbs heat from the sun rays
to a far greater degree than the snow surface itself. The effect is
that of placing a warm) blanket over the snow surface, and more
rapid run-off is the outcome. During the spring of 1934 this general
phenomenon was observed throughout the intermountain region.
It forcibly illustrated the conclusion that watershed protection is
not confined to watershed boundaries but is a regional problem.
COSTLY FLOODS
The importance of watershed resources is probably recognized more
fully in California and Utah than elsewhere in the West, largely as
the result of a series of catastrophes. In California the floods in and
around Los Angeles have brought home the realization that many
other communities have thus far missed — that denudation of a water-
shed, regardless of cause, is a serious menace to life and property.
In the previously mentioned La Crescenta flood 30 lives were lost,
483 homes destroyed, and a total damage caused that was estimated
at $5,000,000. At present in this same locality 380,000 persons and
property valued at $300,000,000 are still directly subject to the ravages
of floods if the local watersheds are devegetated (45).
In Utah, devastating floods and mud-rock flows issuing from mis-
used watersheds along the Wasatch Mountain front have made the
entire State conscious of the consequences of range depletion. During
a 10-year period prior to 1934 damages conservatively estimated at
slightly more than $1,000,000 have been caused by such floods in the
small, intensively farmed section between Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The communities Centerville and Bountiful, adjacent to where
these floods occurred, recognized the value of a protected watershed
some years ago and gained control from private owners of the area
directly influencing them. Under their protective administration
the plant cover has been maintained, no floods have been experienced,
and a healthy feeling of security foreign to their less farsighted
neighbors is well established.
These examples might be multiplied many times over. As pre-
viously discussed, the flood situation is not limited to one locality.
Costly floods, in both life and property, occur every year in nearly
all parts of the range country as a consequence of depletion of the
protective vegetation.
MUNICIPAL WATERSHEDS
The necessity for the protection of watersheds furnishing water
for municipal use has been recognized almost universally where the
source of supply is relatively near to the point of consumption. As a
rule, the watersheds yielding water for cities of any size, such as
Salt Lake City and Denver, are either under municipal regulation or
are included in the national forests. The role of vegetation is rec-
ognized, and strict supervision of all activities on the watersheds is
enforced.
336= THE WESTERN KANGE
Cities drawing water from rivers and streams whose headwaters
are remote to them should be actively interested in seeing to it that
their watersheds are under the jurisdiction of a public agency inter-
ested in watershed protection. Civic growth and development are
limited by the amount of usable water available. It should be realized
that the building of a new factory or the exploitation of a new sub-
division may depend upon whether or not accelerated and uncontrolled
run-off and erosion are occurring on a watershed some few hundred
miles distant. For example, Los Angeles is vitally concerned with the
life of the Boulder Dam and the acceleration of erosion and run-off
on the Colorado River above it.
WATER POWER DEPENDS ON CONTINUOUS STREAM FLOW
Municipalities and industrial enterprises should be concerned with
the eventualities which face their supply of electricity generated by
water power. The water power resources of the West are one of
its greatest heritages, and it is not intimated that power shortages
eould arise, providing capital is available for their development.
But uncontrolled run-off and silting of dams may not only jeopard-
ize undepreciated investments but actually limit industrial and
domestic expansion because of the excessive costs of producing power
on new sites in more remote localities.
RECREATION AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES IMPERILED
To the millions of sportsmen, recreationists, and wildlife conserva-
tionists through the entire United States, the effect of accelerated,
heavily silt-laden run-off on the fish resources and recreational value
of mountain streams is of vital interest. Many recreationists have
returned to what they remembered as a permanent camping and fish-
ing paradise, only to find camp grounds eroded away, stream banks
freshly cut and denuded of vegetation, favorite fishing holes filled
with silt, moss-covered rocks of the stream-bed scoured clean by silt
and gravel, and fish that oncei tested their skill, gone. Gone not
because they had been hooked, but because the disturbance of their
native habitat and food supply had made existence impossible, or
because they had been washed from their holes and sheltered havens
by floods and mud flows. Game and fighting fish demand fairly
natural or virgin conditions of habitat and channeled and scoured
streambeds will inevitably cause migration or death.
The consequences of accelerated erosion on streams in and upon
which the fish and campgrounds are destroyed are broad. The
rural community or business enterprise suffers a declining tourist
trade, a source of income upon which more and more persons have
lately come to depend; and the recreationist, who is rapidly becom-
ing more prominent both in numbers and in his dependence on out-
door enjoyments is deprived of diversions essential to peace of mind,
health, and happiness.
Dust storms caused by the action of wind on denuded soil sur-
faces have already been mentioned. They have produced serious
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION 337
consequences during the past few years. Beginning in 1932, and
again in 1934 and 1935, great clouds of dust have rolled eastward
from the Great Plains owing to a combination of drought, wind, and
de vegetation which resulted from the attempt to cultivate true graz-
ing land. Abandoned farms now stand as ghostly evidence to man's
lack of regard for nature's balance and the vicissitudes of climate.
The physical and mental suffering involved have been appalling.
Homes have been deserted and a despondent yet virile farm popula-
tion thrust out to experience the hardships of seeking new homes in
a country lacking more unappropriated arable land. In general, the
dust storms of the past and the potential hazards of future ones
have made a considerable section of the Great Plains a less desirable
place in which to live for both the urban and rural dweller. Busi-
ness enterprises are insecure, farming hazardous and personal health
endangered.
Dust storms have arisen also from the range lands in the Great
Basin, Columbia River Plateau, and southwestern regions, and
although the local area affected has been much smaller, their conse-
quences are similar to the storms originating in the Great Plains.
CONTRASTING WATERSHED AND GRAZING VALUES
Although grazing is often considered the outstanding value of
range lands, watershed protection may be of even greater importance
on over half of the total range area. The grazing value of these
watershed lands seldom exceeds $3 per acre and is often less in their
present denuded condition. The actual value for watershed protec-
tion has never definitely been measured. Investments of over 5.8 bil-
lion dollars in irrigated land and improvements compare with about
4.1 billion invested in range livestock and private range lands and fa-
cilities used in their production. Of the 475 million acres of range
land making up either the important water-yielding or silt-contribut-
ing areas of major stream basins every acre supports an average in-
vestment of $12.27 in irrigation works, irrigated land, and facilities.
In addition these areas support millions of dollars invested in power
facilities which furnish electric light and power for cities and in-
dustry; a large part are on drainage areas which supply water to
thousands of communities.
The Boise River watershed in Idaho supports a dependent agri-
cultural investment in the valley of about 53 million dollars equal
to $32 for every watershed acre. The watershed of the Roosevelt
Reservoir, the storage basin of the Salt River project in Arizona,
supports an investment of $67 and a yearly production value, as of
1928, in agricultural crops and power of $9 for every watershed acre.
Silt accumulations in many important reservoirs of the West, pri-
marily the result of accelerated erosion caused by range depletion,
are threatening the permanency of the communities which such im-
provements have made possible. In the relatively short period of 17
years, 13 percent of the capacity of the Elephant Butte Reservoir in
New Mexico, for example, has been completely silted. The Rio
Grande channel, near Albuquerque, has become so choked that it will
cost over 10 million dollars to provide flood protection and drainage
works. These examples could be supplemented by many more, some
of which have already been given.
64946—36 23
338 THE WESTERN RANGE
The extreme flood hazard of the West, under present conditions of
impaired watersheds, results annually in unjustified loss of life and
millions of dollars in property damage. The floods from depleted
watersheds of Davis County, Utah, wrought havoc in the valley
communities equivalent to $75 per acre for the entire watershed;
if this damage were prorated only on the denuded areas from which
the flood waters came, the losses would aggregate $1,245 per water-
shed acre. Had protective cover been there such damage would not
have resulted. High values have also been placed upon the steep
mountain brush-covered watershed lands of Los Angeles County,
Calif., where the value of services in water delivery and flood pro-
tection have been estimated at $300 per acre. Such destruction as
emanated in the La Crescenta flood on New Year's Day, 1934, from
an extremely small burned watershed area, clearly indicates the
great importance of maintaining the protective value of the vege-
tation on these steep mountain watersheds unimpaired.
Protection of these critical irrigation and other community values,
dependent on effective watershed maintenance, means more to the
West as a whole than the ranches and livestock dependent on the
watersheds for grazing or the value of the forage which these water-
sheds produce. If it should become necessary to choose between
exclusion of livestock for watershed protection and continuation of
grazing, unquestionably the only practical course would be to elimi-
nate grazing. However, if proper coordination of grazing and
watershed protection were provided, elimination of grazing from
watershed lands, except on relatively small areas, would not be
necessary. Many of the irrigated ranches owe their economic sound-
ness to the fact that range forage produced on the watershed lands
can be utilized by livestock fed part of the year on the ranch. The
outlying communities on these watershed lands also serve a useful
economic and social purpose. Continued grazing of these watersheds
under proper regulation is therefore desirable. Responsibility for
maintaining favorable watershed conditions on the several hundred
million acres of range lands, insofar as grazing use is concerned,
accordingly rests both with the livestock industry and the public.
THE WAY Our — RESTORATION
Fortunately the destruction of the watershed resources of the vir-
gjin range has not as a whole proceeded to the point where the situa-
tion is hopeless. Certain bright spots are still scattered over the
entire West, and with these and the policies which have been applied
to them as a nucleus, a way out of the present dilemma is indicated.
Municipal watersheds which have been protected, certain privately
owned lands upon which productivity has been maintained, and
national forests which have been managed with watershed conserva-
tion as a major consideration, make up the favorable side of the
present picture. For the most part accelerated erosion and floods
offer no problem on these areas because of the suitable plant cover
which has been sustained or restored on them since they came under
their present ownership or control. On the national forests, as an
illustration, one of the most important responsibilities associated
with the administration of range lands has been their protection and
management as watersheds. This duty has been recognized since
IN WATERSHED PROTECTION
339
the creation of the forests, and fortunately for the sustained develop-
ment of the West, many important water-yielding areas are included
within their boundaries. At the time the Forest Service undertook
administration of the national forests, the cover on many watersheds
had been so severely depleted that erosion was rampant and floods
were common. Now, under a system of land management that has
watershed conservation as a basic principle, most of these eroding
areas have been improved and many have been rehabilitated
completely.
Reference has already been made to the Manti National b orest in
Utah where it has been said that at one time the number of bands of
sheep could be counted by the dust clouds which they raised. In-
evitably, these depleted ranges became eroded severely and floods
occurred. The settlement at Manti and others situated on the valley
floor experienced their first floods in 1888 after more than 30 years
of security. These first floods were followed by others more devas-
tating, until the effects of reduced stocking and regulated grazing
following the creation of the national forests began to be reflected
in a restored plant cover. Thus through protection and rehabilita-
tion erosion was halted, run-off was regulated as satisfactorily as pos-
sible under natural conditions, and floods, since 1910, have been
unknown.
The history of Forest Service administration of grazing land is
replete with such examples. Owing to the very badly depleted con-
dition of the ranges prior to the creation of the forests and the eco-
nomic demands upon the ranges since that time, erosion has not been
halted completely in every case, but enough has been done to make
it evident that control by vegetation is possible and feasible except
where erosion is extreme.
Although climate with its vicissitudes of drought, torrential
storms, and excessive precipitation ; topography with varying degrees
of slope; and soils with contrasting susceptibility to erosion, are
important factors in the stability of the watershed resources, the
plant cover of the range has been shown by conclusive research to be
the key to the situation and it is the only one that man can manipu-
late. Unwise use and lack of management on a large share of the
range lands have brought about the present state of depletion and
devastation and this misfortune must be corrected and improved.
Rehabilitation and continued maintenance of a plant cover is the
method whereby erosion scars can be healed, silt load of streams
reduced, and unregulated and flood-producing run-off controlled in
a manner that will yield the maximum quantity of usable water.
The western United States stands today at the crossroads and
must choose between controlled management of its vast area of un-
regulated grazing land or continued exploitation and eventual devas-
tation. The latter course leads to a China or Syria, with accessible
range and forest land almost totally devastated and inundating
floods of common occurrence. The other leads to conditions similar
to those in many nations of Central Europe, where efficient land
management policies are practiced to conserve and protect the water-
sheds. Without doubt the efficacy and desirability of the road to
proper and conservative management has been demonstrated by the
history and present status of these contrasting nations. Cannot
America profit by this experience?
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE
By L. J. PALMER, Principal Forest Ecologist, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station, and S. B. SHOW, Regional Forester, California Region
THE WILDLIFE PROBLEM
Within the limitations set by the needs of civilization for lands
and waters formerly supporting game and fish, the two problems of
coordinate importance in wildlife conservation are to work toward
the opportunity for hunting and fishing characteristics of earlier
days, and to rebuild the formerly abundant opportunities for es-
thetic enjoyment of wildlife. The solution of the first problem re-
duced to terms of practical achievement has three important phases :
First, to restore total population of game birds, game and fur-bear-
ing animals, and game fish to a level that will make hunting, fishing,
and trapping more generally available than they are now; second,
to accomplish the widest possible geographic distribution of this
population — that is, ready availability to hunters and fishermen;
third, to increase largely the total area on which hunting and fishing
at a nominal charge or no charge for the privilege will give oppor-
tunity to the multitudes who cannot afford the luxury of costly field
sport.
Solution of the second problem, perpetuation of nongame species
and the making available of game species for esthetic enjoyment and
observation, on the whole is less difficult and requires less ingenuity
than the task of bringing back takable game and fish.
The range lands make up well over one-third of the total area of
the country; and are the least complicated by permanent human
occupancy of any considerable area. Potentially, therefore, they rep-
resent a major opportunity to develop fish and game populations.
To understand what these possibilities are, the nature of the biologi-
cal background for wildlife production and management must be
sketched.
WILDLIFE A PRODUCT OF ENVIRONMENT
Wildlife is a product of land and environment, just as are trees,
shrubs, or grass. That animal species possess varying degrees of
mobility at times obscures but does not alter this fact.
The essential requirements of feed, water, and shelter vary for each
species, and are, to a high degree, specific characters determining the
range — i. e., the environment — which a species finds suitable. Large
groups of both animals and birds, for example, are meat eaters;
others are herb eaters; some groups require heavy cover, while others
are dwellers in the open. Popular, and to some extent scientific,
classification recognizes these inherent characteristics.
The relative inflexibility of the demands of many species for
habitats with certain combinations of climate, cover, and water is
illustrated by the large number of species found only within indi-
341
342 THE WESTERN RANGE
vidual areas of uniform environment. The species that are so
biologically adaptable as to succeed in a wide diversity of environ-
ment are in the minority.
The adaptation to, and dependence upon, particular total environ-
ments has been found, for many species, to tie to key factors. For
example, some woodpecker species will nest only in dead trees, and
a forest without snags is for them an unacceptable environment.
Thus the process of organic evolution through which each species
developed a certain combination of requirements, narrowly or broadly
limited as the case might be, results in a total wildlife population in
natural balance within itself and with its environment. Within a
given habitat the struggle for existence between strong and weak
individuals of a species, and between species, produces such a pattern
and wealth of wildlife as the early explorers found in the western
range country.
When white men first pushed their way into the western range
they found a land rich in natural resources. Early accounts of ex-
ploration and settlement repeatedly mention the abundant forage
and wildlife ; for example, in writing of his journey across the Plains
in the summer of 1858, Hayden (71) found the prairies clothed with
luxuriant growth of grass and literally alive, as far as the eye could
reach, with vast herds of grazing buffalo. Reports of first settle-
ment in California tell of countless thousands of deer, elk, antelope,
and quail seen in the foothills and valleys, and of the myriads of
waterfowl in the lakes and marshes.
In Montana, so the journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition of
1804 to 1806 (37, v. 1) records, the valleys of the upper Missouri and
Yellowstone supported an aggregation of game animals that for
number and variety exceeded anything elsewhere that the eye of man
has ever looked upon. The story of the Northwest is one of abundant
wildlife, particularly of beaver and other fur bearers, of fur brigands
competing in the wilderness for the largest catch of furs, and of an
enormous fur trade. In the Southwest an abundance of antelope
over large areas was particularly noted ; and in the Rocky Mountain
region there was an equal abundance of deer, antelope, wild chickens,
and fish. Only in parts of Nevada and Utah, the heavily timbered
country of Idaho, and extreme western Montana was a scarcity of
game recorded.
It is natural that the early accounts should emphasize the game
species, both of land animals and fish, for the food and lives of the
early explorers often depended on them. In nongame country, such
as that encountered by Lewis and Clark in the Selway River coun-
try of Idaho, explorers were forced to eat their dogs to live. But
later expeditions, scientific in character, found that the nongame
species of this relatively undisturbed environment were actually
numerous.
How REDUCTION IN RANGE AREA AND ITS DEPLETION REDUCED
WILDLIFE
Range depletion, following the rapid occupation of the range
quantity of for-
Avzmge uepietiuii, lunuwiiig tiie rapm ucuupauu _
country and its violent subjugation to man's use, signified, in its
effect on wildlife, not merely reduction in the total
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE 343
age available, but also practical elimination of many plant species
valuable for grazing animals, invasion by worthless species, starting
of widespread erosion, destruction of springs and streams, reduction
of soil fertility and destruction of essential cover. This is equiva-
lent to saying that profound changes in environment occurred, even
where the land was not turned to crop use. The wild land environ-
ment, both range and forest, was altered to an extent and at a pace
that were catastrophic to its native inhabitants. Progressive drain-
age of the innumerable small lakes and ponds of western Nebraska
and other Plains States destroyed a major breeding ground for
waterfowl. Destruction of cover by fire and grazing in the lower
hills of the California central valley began the process of restricting
the range of the valley quail. The natural balance between summer
and winter ranges was disrupted. The advance of civilization, ex-
pressed in the taming of the desert and wilderness, the conversion
of range into crop land, and especially the depletion of remaining
range lands, worked havoc with the natural environments of wild-
]ife, restricting areas available to it, destroying its feed and water,
and deteriorating its habitats.
RESTRICTION OF AREA AVAILABLE FOR WILDLIFE
Use of the better range lands for crop production, reclamation of
submarginal lands, of waters, the disposal of lands by the States for
immediate revenue, the transfer of lands into private ownership
without restrictions on mode of use, ajid dry farming on submar-
ginal lands, often ending in abandonment, have removed or destroyed
areas formerly available for wildlife. Generally, settlement for crop
agriculture was necessary and inevitable, but in other instances it
has not proved to be economically successful. The abandonment of
submarginal croplands has left in its wake considerable areas on
which cover has been destroyed through plowing or other disturb-
ance. Elsewhere, the continued use of poor lands, an economic
loss in human effort, is resulting in injury to wildlife through re-
moval of cover that with efficient use of the land, would have been
available to wildlife.
The reduction in total area available to game would be serious
enough in directly reducing populations, were it not for the loss of
vital seasonal range areas, particularly winter ranges once so
abundant.
Prior to settlement, buffalo and antelope occupied the plains and
valleys; deer, elk, and mountain sheep were found in the foothills;
and mountain goats preferred the inner fastnesses of the mountains.
Deer and elk often summered on the foothills and lower mountain
slopes and migrated to the plains and valleys for the winter, particu-
larly when snows were heavy. Occupation of the lowlands by com-
munities, fenced ranches, and livestock took over this natural winter
range of game and forced them back into the mountains or onto
remnants of their former range on the plains. Most of our big game
animals today are found in the mountainous areas to which they are
not especially well adapted, at least for year-long grazing.
344 THE WESTERN RANGE
RANGE DEPLETION
The forage stand on the principal forage types used by game dur-
ing the critical seasons has been depleted over 50 percent in com-
parison with its virgin condition.
Overgrazing by livestock of the remaining winter game ranges in
the foothills and plains has had the further effect of crowding the
game onto mountain forest areas that are essentially summer range.
Here the game was and often is forced into a less suitable environ-
ment in lower reaches of its former summer domain for winter feed-
ing. The forage on many of these areas on the national forests has
been reserved for game use, but the bulk of its winter range is under
other control or in private ownership and migrating herds find the
meager forage supply so vitally needed for wintering already
cropped by domestic livestock.
This factor, coupled with the reduced range area, results in star-
vation and excessive loss from predators in severe winters. At such
times ranchers have frequently divided their scanty hay supply with
the game to relieve starvation. This situation applies generally
throughout the range country. A specific example is in Montana,
where it is estimated that in seasons of deep snow less than 5 per-
cent of the gross national-forest area is available to game. This is
so inadequate that an estimated 70 percent of the deer and elk are
forced outside the forests in critical winters. Here, because of
depleted forage on public domain and private ranges, many of them
invade farm pastures and hay stacks, in order to survive.
Many instances illustrate the effects upon elk and deer herds of
this restricted and depleted winter range. For example, the winters
of 1930-31 and 1931-32 are estimated to have brought death to nearly
35 percent (and as high as 75 percent in some localities) of western
Montana's deer ; during the winter of 1932-33, on the South Fork of
Flathead, 500 elk starved or were killed.
The two most obvious and glaring examples are the Sun River
and the northern (or Yellowstone) elk herds. On Sun River, in
the Lewis and Clark National Forest of Montana, a herd of elk on
the Sun River game preserve was built up over a series of favorable
winters to about 4,600 animals. This was a larger number than the
available winter range could normally support. During winters of
deep or crusted snow, such as that of 1919-20, feed areas were re-
duced to a few ridges blown bare of snow and isolated pockets or
strips supporting browse on or near stream courses. In the fall of
1930 heavy storms drove a big proportion of the herd to the valleys,
where 1,070 head were shot down by men and women on foot and
on horseback, in farm wagons, and in city automobiles. Subsequent
losses from starvation on the limited range area were very heavy, and
by 1934 it was doubtful if the herd numbered more than 3,000 elk.
The northern elk herd, enjoying nearly 15 years of favorable
weather conditions, increased to more than 15,000 by the fall of 1919.
But that winter heavy snows fell early, forcing the animals down to
range already cropped short by domestic stock. A toll of some 4,000
head was immediately taken by hunters. But as the winter advanced
and snows became deeper and badly crusted, the slaughter during
the hunting season was a merciful thing compared to the suffering
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE 345
and loss which took place until spring brought relief. The winter
of 1922-23 was also bad, and by the spring 1923 it was estimated
that this herd which 3^ years earlier had numbered more than
15,000 was down to 8,000 or 9,000 head.
A further effect of range depletion is seen in the competition be-
tween two or more wildlife species through overcrowding. Thus on
the Sitgreaves National Forest in Arizona the increasing numbers
of a planted elk herd are competing more and more with mule deer
in the use) of winter range to the disadvantage of the deer. If the
elk are allowed to continue increasing, it will be only a matter of
time until the deer are exterminated, since the taller elk can reach
higher on the juniper, a favorite elk and deer forage, and therefore
can get food in winter after none is left within reach of the deer.
This situation similarly applies to the Blue Mountain region of Ore-
gon where the increasing elk are threatening to drive out the deer
because of competition for forage on a depleted winter range.
Deterioration of habitat, through depletion of the range has fur-
thermore resulted in decrease of upland game birds. A good exam-
ple of this is in the thinning out of quail in the San Joaquin Valley
region of California. Quail formerly inhabited the valley by the
thousands, and the finest part of their habitat was in the brushy foot-
hills. Overgrazing of these foothill areas and the extensive use of
fire in an effort to improve forage has destroyed much of the peren-
nial herbaceous vegetation and low shrubs that furnished not only
cover but also food for the quail. The result is an estimated decrease
of birds of 25 to 30 percent within the last 15 years. Decrease of
quail for similar reasons has taken place at other points, such as
along the Rio Grande and in the desert and semidesert areas of
Arizona.
Whether the process of range depletion was accompanied by in-
crease in species destructive to the range is uncertain. But at the
least, the relative importance of rodents is greater on depleted than
on normal range.
Rodents do a great deal of damage to the range in destruction of
forage and therein are a contributing factor in reducing wildlife
and impeding livestock production. Rodent damage looms large
as a factor on ranges of the Southwest. For instance, Taylor (HI)
states :
In some of our northern Arizona fenced plots, rodents, chiefly prairie dogs,
have consumed, cut down, or prevented from growing, 69 percent of the blue-
stem, 81 percent of the blue grama, and 100 percent of the sand dropseed.
In southern Arizona Rothrock grama and associated grasses in fenced plots
have been reduced by jack rabbits and other rodents by 35 to 81 percent.
A single kangaroo-rat burrow may contain a's much, as 50 bushels
of grass seed and there are at times as many as 10 to 12 burrows to
the acre. In drought periods when all feed is needed by livestock
as well as game and other valuable wildlife, such hoarding'by rodents
brings about an extremely critical condition. All feed may be ex-
hausted months before new growth can come, increasing starvation
losses of livestock and impairing the vigor of wildlife species.
Although settlement of the West has not been unfavorable to ani-
mals and birds in every case— as, for instance, a large increase in
bobwhite that is evidently the result of the prairies being turned to
346 THE WESTERN RANGE
farm use. The net effect of profound and widespread alteration
of environment is beyond doubt a breaking up of the distribution
of many animal and bird species, so that mere islands remain; a
reduction in the population per unit of area on lands still occupied ;
an exodus of the remaining individuals to less favorable environ-
ment ; an upset of the balance between species.
OTHER CHANGES IN HABITAT
Destruction of former breeding areas by drainage combined with
overshooting and the deterioration of feeding conditions by recur-
rent drought have brought waterfowl to a precarious state (41).
Added losses attributable to misuse of land are being brought about
by poisoning from a form of botulism, caused by the toxin produced
by a common bacterium. The factors making favorable conditions
for this causative organism are inadequate water supply and fluctu-
ating water levels resulting in the creation, during periods of hot
weather, of alkaline sinks and areas of shallow, stagnant water,
mud flats, and their associated decaying organic matter in which
toxin may be produced. Botulism in 1932 caused an estimated loss
of one-quarter of a million birds at the north end of Great Salt
Lake (80). Losses occurred at many other points within the range
area but not to such extent as in the Utah-Idaho region. The range
area lies in the path of two major waterfowl fly ways of North
America (fig. 75) and therefore is particularly important to water-
fowl for furnishing food and resting places enroute.
The drainage of so many ponds, lakes, and marshes in the Plains
States has wiped out most of the local breeding grounds for water-
fowl, and much of the land drained has proved to be of very limited
agricultural value. In fact, efforts are now being made to restore
some of the 5,483,524 acres (158) that have been drained within the
range area.
Likewise, because of reduced area by drainage and occupation
of other submarginal lands, together with excessive trapping, fur
bearers have been greatly reduced in numbers with consequent eco-
nomic loss. As a general picture, F. G. Ashbrook, of the United
States Bureau of Biological Survey,38 states:
The most amazing thing is that with a $500,000,000 annual turn-over in the
retail fur trade even as late as 1929, no one should have started long ago to
put the fur trade on a factual basis * * *. Already the annual retail turn-
over in furs has shrunken to $150,000,000, and the entire cause cannot be
attributed to droughts, floods, and the financial depression.
To point out an example of the value of fur animals as an annual
crop, speaking of swamp or marsh lands, Ashbrook further states:
At present market prices (1935), the return on an acre from muskrat pelts
alone would furnish an income of from $7 to $14 each season. No system
of cropping this type of land would produce as much.
Fish suffered major reduction to a similar degree, particularly as
range depletion reached an advanced stage. For example, many
streams of the Wasatch Range in Utah originally had populations
of native trout. Silting of the streams, brought on by overgrazing,
88 Ashbrook, P. G. Fur resources — the stepchild of conservation. An address at the
Sixth Annual National Retail Furrier Convention and Trade Exposition, held at Buffalo,
N. Y., July 1935. 4 pp. 1935. [Mimeographed.]
AS A HOME FOE WILDLIFE
347
FIGDEB 75. — Two principal waterfowl flyways through the range country emphasize the
need for an adequate cover to provide watershed protection. The flyway lane in
each case is indicated by heavy lines and the tributary migration routes are shown by
arrows. Upper, Pacific flyway; lower, central flyway. (From "The Waterfowl Flyways
of North America", U. S. Dept. Agr. Circ. 342.)
348 THE WESTERN RANGE
had by the early eighties destroyed the fish, not only by deteriora-
tion of habitat, but also by killing the stream-bank vegetation
through the medium of which the food supply was partly pro-
vided. The process of halting erosion through conservative range
management was begun about 1905, when the national forests were
created, but it was 1920 before the environment was sufficiently
restored so that trout could again be established. Several of the
Montana streams have gone through a similar cycle of natural
balance — an initial disturbance of cover by overgrazing or fire ; then
erosion, resulting in fouled streams and the destruction of stream-
bank vegetation and of fish ; and finally control of grazing, stopping
of erosion, gradual reestablishment of stream-bank vegetation, and
restoration of fish.
Reduction of water flows through diversion for power irrigation
and municipal use together with a lack of adequate screening at
diversion points has resulted in a heavy loss of fishing water and
fish. In many places this problem exceeds in importance that of
factors resulting from man's use of the land but is much less difficult
of solution.
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES INTENSIFIED BY OVERUTILIZA-
TION OF WILDLIFE RESOURCE
Reduction in wildlife was both heavy and rapid, as an inevitable
consequence of range depletion and agricultural occupation; but
coupled with it went overutilization of game and fish. The early
attitude toward usable species of wildlife was no different from the
pioneers' attitude toward land, trees, or grass. It was something to
be taken and used, without let or hindrance.
The susceptibility to attack of different game species varied
enormously. The buffalo was perhaps the most vulnerable, because
of its habit of herding, its slow speed, and its existence in open
country. Its virtual extinction was a foregone conclusion, even if its
natural range had not been so heavily used for agriculture. Other
game species, such as the native deer, were far better able to survive
man's attacks. They did not congregate in herds. They were
speedy, and they lived in cover where concealment was easy.
It is impossible to give an exact or even an approximate estimate
of reduction in numbers of wildlife brought about by range depletion
and hunting, but the present picture is one of great diminution of all
forms, a restricted range, and unfavorable distribution. The re-
maining wildlife is overcrowded in some sections, scarce or wanting
in others, and for the most part confined to refuges, national forests,
parks, and preserves. Extreme cases serve to dramatize the situa-
tion. The buffalo for the entire United States are reduced from
former millions to an estimated 4,400 39 confined to a semidomestic
state on reservations. One species of white-tailed deer which for-
merly roamed western Washington is known to have become extinct
in modern times (141}- The last white- tailed deer disappeared
from Yellowstone Park during the winter of 1923-24 (ISO) . It has
been nearly exterminated in Oregon and its ranks thinned to alarm-
39 Figures furnished by U. S. Biological Survey, according to a census taken by the
" by is
American Bison Society issued under date of Jan. 1, 1934 (56).
AS A HOME FOE WILDLIFE 349
ing extent in Washington. The prong-horned antelope is still scarce
or absent over vast areas in the Southwest where it was formerly
abundant, although it is generally on the increase on and near
refuges and reservations within the range areas as a whole. Where
estimated as formerly numbering not less than 30 to 40 millions, and
possibly more (92), antelope now total only about 66,000 40 for the
entire United States, approximately 60,000 being within the range
area.
Mountain sheep, moose, and grizzly bear are comparatively few
and barely holding their own. (See tables 62 and 63.) Elk and
mule deer are suffering from serious overstocking on restricted winter
ranges with other areas generally understocked. Elk were so re-
duced in numbers as recently as 1904 that it was believed that the
only way to preserve them was to try to domesticate them. Most
species of upland game birds and fur bearers are reduced to scatter-
ing remnants of former abundance and are continuing to decline.
Many former fish streams are depleted, and waterfowl have decreased
to such an alarming extent as to have aroused wide public concern
for the future supply.
Man early attacked the animal predators because they found in
flocks and herds of domestic stock a ready-at-hand source of feed.
The grizzly and the wolf succumbed, but other predators, such as
the coyotes and mountain lion, proved to have the biological adapta-
bility needed to insure success in the fight for existence.
REDUCED WILDLIFE PRESENTS AN IMPORTANT AND NEGLECTED PROBLEM
Game especially is of direct economic value not only for food but
also because hunters, fishermen, and others attracted by its presence
bring money into the community. From the viewpoint of national
economics, our wildlife resource represents an annual income running
into millions of dollars, which is capable of further increase through
intelligent management. The harvesting of the annual crop of
game thus forms the basis of an extensive commerce.
The annual value of meat and fur in the range area is estimated at
more than $87,250,000 and the value of fish at approximately $4,700,-
000 (154, PP- 495-496) - Expenditures by sportsmen for hunting and
fishing, including licenses, were estimated for 1930-31 at better than
$40,300,000 for the range area. Tourist expenditures on the national
forests within the range area were over $155,000,000 in 1930-31.
Sportsmen's expenditures include purchase of arms, ammunition,
fishing tackle, and clothing and outlays for transportation, board,
hire of guides, and hunting and fishing privileges on private lands.
Aside from the direct economic values, the pursuit of game for
sport and the enjoyment of wildlife for its aesthetic, educational, or
scientific interest is a source of renewed health and vigor to a great
many men and women who are thus induced each year to spend a
period of vigorous life in the open. The number of people that
visited the national forests in 1930 for recreational use is estimated
at 31,000,000 (149). To many, if not all of these, one of the main
attractions was the opportunity to see deer, bear, and other wild
creatures in their native habitat. Increase in population, greater
40 Estimate based on figures given in New York Zoological Society Bulletin, 1932 (95).
350 THE WESTERN RANGE
accessibility because of the automobile and good roads, and the time
for greater leisure will result in a growing demand for wildlife
enjoyment.
A further important value of wildlife is the beneficial effect on
range lands — enrichment of soil by the work of burrowing mammals ;
distribution of seed by birds ; influence on streamflow by the work of
beaver, where scientifically controlled, in checking rapid run-off and
making more favorable conditions for the occupation of streams
by fish (US) ; and insect and rodent control by birds and fur
bearers. The destruction of insects by birds within the range area
is given an estimated value of $208,700,000 in protecting agricultural
crops (15^ pp. 495-496).
This general situation, as affecting economic and social values, is
reflected in loss of the fullest enjoyment and profit to be obtained
through a balanced use of the range and a sufficiently abundant wild-
life to provide hunting, fishing, and recreational and aesthetic ben-
efits commensurate with local and national needs. Often the pres-
ence of wildlife is a major attraction of a locality and a source of
revenue to the community in the expenditures by tourists and hunt-
ers. The large deer herd in the Kaibab National Forest is a great
attraction annually to the many visitors to the Grand Canyon. In
the Southwest there is so much desert waste land that the presence
of game in the mountain areas becomes a major attraction and there-
fore of great economic importance. Similarly, in the mountainous
region of Montana, where so much area is of little use to livestock,
is inaccessible, and has only low-value timber, the presence of game
and desirable fishing streams is a real asset. The more support a
community receives from outside revenue, such as may be attracted
by the presence of wildlife, the less it needs to tax its local residents.
Aside from this, the presence and maintenance of wildlife is of ben-
efit to the local resident for his own enjoyment. Its curtailment,
therefore, beyond a reasonable need for other use of land is a dis-
tinct loss.
Recently, because of the serious decrease in waterfowl, a general
cut in the bag limit for ducks had to be made throughput the United
States and the hunting season shortened. This entailed a loss not
only to the hunter in limited enjoyment, but to the community as
well in loss of revenue. The decreasing number of fur bearers and
game birds, and the increase of depleted trout streams, have resulted
in the loss (to the farmer and his son, particularly, but also to
others) of the profit and enjoyment that comes from trapping, fish-
ing, and hunting. Likewise even to the city dweller there is loss of
opportunity for healthy recreation, whether it be in whipping a
stream for trout, gunning for rabbits or quail, or observing big
game in its natural environment. And to the tourist and sportsman
there must surely be a disappointment in viewing an overgrazed
range as a setting for wildlife, or in failing to see the wildlife forms
that had been anticipated. Thus the fullest economic and social
values of wildlife are affected adversely by the present condition,
and the need of a remedy is indicated.
For decades the process of direct depletion of wildlife continued
without serious effort to halt it. Naturally enough, the initial pre-
occupation of the pioneers with the struggle to subdue a new country,
and the easy assumption that game and fish, like forests, grass, and
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE 351
farm land, were inexhaustible, left only a few to think of future
problems. Man necessarily lived in the here and now.
Prior to 1900 there was very little thought of the need for pro-
tection of wildlife. It had been so abundant that restrictions were
not deemed necessary. It was not until the end of the game resource
was definitely in sight that any action toward wildlife conservation
was sought.
First steps were State game legislation to establish seasons and
bag limits for game and the creation of control and enforcement
under a county and later State game-commission system. A con-
temporary and most vital development was the building up of favor-
able public sentiment in favor of game conservation and law enforce-
ment. A further step was the establishment of many State and
Federal game refuges and preserves for protection of wildlife. This
was followed by transplanting and propagation of game stock; fish
were replaced in depleted streams; game animals were reestablished
on depleted areas in various localities; and replacement and sup-
plementing of upland game birds were brought about by introduc-
tion of exotic species, such as the ringneck pheasant and Hungarian
partridge.
DEFECTS IN THEORIES ADOPTED IN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
The early attempts at wildlife management were based (as is,
indeed, the general pattern of action to date) on the premise that
with merely restrictive laws and their effective enforcement, perpetu-
ation of any species could be accomplished. That this whole ap-
proach to the problem of wildlife management is biologically un-
sound has become increasingly evident, as populations of wildlife —
particularly of game birds, animals, and fish — have continued to de-
crease, despite more and more laws and more and more officers to
enforce them.
WILDLIFE NOT REGARDED AS A CROP
One underlying difficulty has been that the public mind has had
no appreciation of wildlife as a crop, the produce or surplus of which
is to be annually harvested, and hence has had little concept of the
possibilities of wildlife management. Leopold (85) briefly defines
game management as "the art of making land produce sustained
annual crops of wild game for recreation use." This implies not
only conservation in its broadest sense and correction of past abuses
that come about as a result of settlement and lack of understanding
but also the control of numbers in accordance with the available feed.
An added factor in the overbalance of game has been the inade-
quacy of control of numbers under the average buck law. This fails
to consider breeding needs, results in an overabundance of does, and
a corresponding large increase in the herd that contributes to local
overstocking. In many places, as for example the Modoc, Lassen,
and Shasta National Forests in California, owing to overprotection
by refuge, predatory-animal control, and bag limits, the deer popula-
tion has grown beyond the grazing capacity of the winter ranges.
These factors of overprotection have also applied in many other
cases of game overpopulation, such as on the Kaibab Plateau and on
the Gila National Forest.
352 THE WESTERN RANGE
Predator control must not only stop short of elimination of preda-
tors ; it must avoid the equally disastrous error of permitting too large
a number of predators to remain. For example, insufficient control
or kill of mountain lions in California has resulted in a great increase
of these predators on the coast ranges and in the northern part of
the State. This is contributing to material reductions in what until
recently were rather large herds of deer and to what are now under-
stocked conditions on the deer ranges in these sections, which being
close to San Francisco and other bay cities furnish sport for thou-
sands of hunters. The importance of predators in rodent control,
moreover, should not be overlooked. For example, in Colorado it is
felt that weasel, if properly protected, would accomplish in rodent
control as much as or more than the present poisoning methods.
That weasels are not protected in Colorado and are now scarce is
considered a contributing factor in the increase of rodents in that
State.
WILDLIFE TREATED APART FROM ENVIRONMENT
Another difficulty in management has been that legal theory
separated wildlife from its environment. Thus arose inevitable
conflict in administration through the claim to jurisdiction over
game by the States, irrespective of ownership of the land occupied
by the game. The legal status of the game on nationally owned or
private lands has never been definitely settled. Too abundant game
may be destructive to forest reproduction or to watershed and may
seriously interfere with the proper regulation of the grazing of
domestic livestock essential to the maintenance of established com-
munities. Proper game management calls for the maintenance of
numbers on the basis of available forage and with due regard to
other local needs. Often the necessary killing of surplus game on
overpopulated ranges runs counter to the provisions of State game
laws. Under the present system of divided authority it is very diffi-
cult to work out an effective reconciliation of the points of conflict.
This is illustrated in the problem of reducing surplus elk in the
Pecos herd on the Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico (127)
and the Sitgreaves herd on the Sitgreaves and Coconino National
Forests in Arizona (110). Here again the management problem is
one of holding numbers to the grazing capacity of the range in full
consideration of livestock and other crop needs. The removal of
surplus animals is not provided for under the present State control
of game. On the Sitgreaves the elk increased from an original plant
of 75 in 1913 to approximately 3,300 head in 1934. The optimum
number to be maintained on this area is placed at 2,000 head. On
the Santa Fe, the elk increased from an original plant of 47 in
1915, of which 18 are supposed to have survived, to an estimated
1,100 in 1934. The optimum number to be maintained here is placed
at 1,000 head. The need of management control and reduction of
surplus game on the above areas is apparent but meets with the diffi-
culty of conflict with State law.
Another environmental obstacle in wildlife management in the
West is the diversification of ownership of the land which has
greatly complicated any unified program of management. National
parks furnish a haven for wildlife and can be of great value in its
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE
353
production, if a proper balance is maintained under a uniform and
correlated program of management applying to all areas. National
forests have immense areas of land occupied by wildlife that are
little if at all used by domestic livestock (fig. 76). In Montana
TOTAL AREA
AVAILABLE
TO -WILDLIFE
AREA ALSO USED
BY LIVESTOCK
88888888888888888866^^
50 100
MILLIONS OF ACRES
150
FIGDKE 76. — National-forest areas available to wildlife, including those used by livestock.
alone is 9,289,104 acres of such land, representing 57 percent of the
net area of national forests in the State. Such lands, in addition
to those closed for game, recreation, watershed protection, or other
use, are inaccessible to livestock because of heavy timber, down tim-
ber, or rugged topography. Because of this large available acreage
the setting aside of separate areas for wildlife has been necessary
only to meet specific needs, such as particular breeding grounds,
winter range, etc. On lands properly grazed by livestock there will
ordinarily be abundant cover and sufficient food supplies to main-
tain a reasonable stocking of wildlife. For example, the national
forests of Colorado are estimated to afford adequate summer range
for two or three times the present number of game animals without
conflict with livestock, provided sufficient winter range is made
available for the wildlife on adjoining public domain.
On private lands there is little to encourage the owner to protect
wildlife other than his natural liking for it. Still, if the owner
provides some food and cover in wood lot, windbreak, or hedge, the
land can contribute both to private use and wildlife supply, par-
ticularly of small-game species such as quail, grouse, pheasants, and
rabbits.
On the open public domain there is a more serious situation in
wildlife maintenance. Owing to heavy overgrazing by livestock,
food and cover for. wildlife have been removed or greatly depreciated.
Management of the forage resource of the public domain is greatly
needed and should be coordinated with that on other lands for
development of wildlife in proper relation to other resources and use
values. This will add materially to the economic and social enjoy-
ment of the region and Nation.
WILDLIFE REFUGES NOT UNIVERSAL SOLUTION
As operation of restrictive laws failed, the theory of complete
protection on specific areas became established, its proponents over-
looking the fact that protection from hunting alone may defeat its
64946— 36 24
354 THE WESTERN RANGE
own purpose. Protection was the underlying idea in the original
concept of the game refuge. It was believed that large refuges,
permanently established, would serve as breeding grounds for game,
from which increases would drift on to adjacent areas and there
furnish hunting. It has been found, however, that this drift to
adjacent areas does not materialize, even under hunger compulsion,
and that the animals are extraordinarily local in their range (188) '.
This results, in turn, in overpopulation of the refuge, injury to the
feed resource in many instances, and in some cases even wholesale
starvation for the protected animals. Furthermore, in such cases
the capacity of the range is reduced not only for wildlife, but for
livestock as well.
The Kaibab Plateau was set aside as a game preserve, chiefly for
deer, in 1906. Control of predators by the Biological Survey up to
1923 gave added protection. As a result the deer increased until the
forage-producing capacity of the area was insufficient for both deer
and livestock. Continued increase in deer, notwithstanding heavy
reductions in livestock totaling 77.8 percent between 1910 and 1930,
resulted in great damage to the more valuable forage plants and
young forest trees. By 1929 biologists estimated that it would take
the vegetation, much of it of especial value for the deer, a minimum
of 50 years under practically complete protection to regain its
original condition. Action has been under way for several years to
remedy the situation, and the excess population has already been
reduced.
A large area of mountainous country on the Gila National Forest,
because of latitude, elevation, and vegetative cover, is peculiarly
adapted to the production of deer (102). It is also used by cattle.
To protect calves the cattlemen set about to exterminate the mountain
lion. There are no available statistics regarding the number of lions
removed, but it is known to be large. This destruction of mountain
lions served also to protect the deer. Since the area is relatively
inaccessible to hunters, the inevitable occurred. The deer herd in-
creased prodigiously, with the result that the cattlemen began to
complain that the deer were overrunning their range and threaten-
ing to put them out of business. Here, as on the Kaibab, it has been
necessary to correct the situation by removing the surplus deer, and
also to reduce the number of livestock.
TRANSPLANTING OF WILDLIFE
The artificial planting of areas to game, while often an effective
aid in restoring and distributing wildlife, has not always been wise.
This is illustrated in the planting of elk on the Pleasant Grove di-
vision of the Wasatch National Forest in Utah. Here elk were intro-
duced in a narrow foothill area bounded on one side by the inac-
cessible Timpanogas Mountain range and on the other side by lands
occupied by farms and ranches. These adjoining properties have
intense need of the range for domestic livestock. The elk here,
which numbered 18 head in 1920, had increased to 209 head by 1934.
The restricted range is too small for this increase, particularly for
winter forage, with the result that the elk seek food in raids on
orchards, gardens, and haystacks of the nearby ranches. The elk
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE 355
in this instance seriously conflict with the local needs in use of range
for livestock, besides doing damage to farm properties.
Widespread attempts to replace depleted stocks of native upland
birds by importation of exotics have been only partly successful.
To a large extent these efforts beg the question of the real under-
lying causes of decreasing game population.
LACK OF BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF WILDLIFE A HANDICAP
Underlying all other factors of the present situation on the range
is a lack of basic knowledge of wildlife because of which many
efforts in protection and restoration have failed. The present in-
formation as to wildlife populations and annual kill are fragmen-
tary and inadequate. Much fundamental biological research is
needed in regard to wildlife interrelationship, life histories, breed-
ing, and feeding habits of various animals, environmental needs,
propagation, enemies, diseases, etc. Principles of good manage-
ment demand that working plans, not only for the development of
the wildlife resource but for its coordination with other forms of
land utilization must be based on sound, fundamental facts.
WILDLIFE ADMINISTRATION NOT HANDLED AS A BIOLOGICAL PROBLEM
Because wildlife conservation was based solely on restrictive laws,
it was natural that the commissions and boards created to super-
vise fish and game work, and the field officers employed for law en-
forcement, were seldom selected for their training in the biological
sciences. Just how much might have been accomplished had the
States generally used men with professional qualifications rather
than political appointees, is perhaps an open question. At least,
earlier and more forceful recognition of the underlying structural
defects in the edifice of State game and fish management would
likely have come.
WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT UNDER LEGAL PATTERN SELF-DEFEATING
The logical outcome of a purely legal approach to wildlife manage-
ment is either the virtual extermination of species that hunters and
fishermen unfailingly bring about, against their own true interest
and desire, or the virtual end of hunting and fishing as complete
closure to taking becomes necessary through failures inevitable from
the very structure of the accepted theory. The yearlong closed
season on many species in the range States, forced as a last desperate
measure to prevent extinction of valuable game species, testifies alike
to the self -defeating nature of management by restrictive laws and
to the decreasing opportunity for hunting and fishing.
VITAL IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENT PROVED BY NATIONAL-FOREST
EXPERIMENT
That maintenance or restoration of an approximately natural
environment is the first essential in restoring wildlife populations
has been proved on a large scale on the national forests. For on
these public properties, although the taking of wildlife has been
356
THE WESTERN KANGE
wholly controlled by State law, an essentially natural environment
has been maintained or restored.
Probably no single factor has had a more important effect upon
the rehabilitation of the wildlife resource on the western range than
the establishment of the national forests. Withdrawal of lands for
forests insured the maintenance of a suitable wildlife habitat, which
was so essential in that critical period if game was to be perpetuated
in the face of a rapidly advancing civilization.
TABLE 60. — Refuges and reserves for wildlife on the western range, inside and
outside national forests 1
State
Inside national forests
State-owned
Federal-owned
Under adminis-
trative restric-
tion
Far western:
Arizona
No.
45
33
22
26
23
10
49
14
11
25
20
1
1
Acres
802, 444
2, 082, 838
2, 642, 280
3, 512, 757
1, 514, 903
932, 390
1, 144, 983
795, 805
1,351,690
2, 007, 194
2, 546, 448
34,000
206, 026
No.
3
2
Acres
865, 460
20, 770
No.
Acres
California
5
36
14
38
92, 720
418, 178
1,325,248
1, 129, 443
Colorado...
Idaho . —
Montana
Nevada.. . _. .
New Mexico
1
45,515
Oregon
3
170, 600
Utah
Washington
2
19
85,802
321, 955
Wyoming
2
3
84,450
51,188
Range portion of Plains States:
South Dakota
Nebraska
All States.
280
19, 573, 758
11
1, 067, 383
117
3,543,946
State
Outside national forests
All areas
State-owned
Federal-owned
Far western:
Arizona ....
No.
6
11
Acres
909, 280
544, 755
No.
2
5
5
2
7
5
2
5
3
8
5
2
1
1
Acres
333, 807
89, 854
357,360
25, 540
98, 626
530, 088
91, 908
244,189
79, 327
1,750
43,418
11, 755
13, 680
40,782
No.
56
56
63
46
77
27
133
31
20
126
53
32
17
11
2
26
Acres
2, 910, 991
2, 830, 937
3, 417, 818
5, 313, 445
3, 690, 769
5, 768, 348
2, 500, 050
4, 591, 874
2, 022, 017
3, 921, 248
3, 937, 231
79, 882
255, 778
318, 148
4,440
2, 727, 404
California
Colorado.. .
Idaho
4
9
12
81
9
6
91
7
30
12
9
2
26
449,900
2 947, 797
4, 305, 870
1, 217, 644
3, 381, 280
591, 000
1,826,502
940, 960
68, 127
156,910
3 71, 340
4,440
2, 727, 404
Montana
Nevada .
New Mexico
Oregon
Utah.
Washington
Wyoming
Range portion of Plains States:
North Dakota
South Dakota.—.
Nebraska
Kansas
Texas
All States
315
18, 143, 209
53
1, 962, 084
776
44, 290, 380
1 Sources of data: U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Bird Refugesand Big-
game Preserves Administered by the Bureau of Biological Survey, Wildlife Research and Management
Leaflet BS-16, 7 pp., illus., 1935 (mimeographed); and Forest Service annual fish and game reports, 1935.
I 7 area figures not available.
I 1 area figure not available.
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE
357
Table 60 shows the refuges and reserves for wildlife inside and
outside the national forests of the western region for 1934. The 44.3
million acres estimated for these tracts amounts to 4.5 percent of
the total land in the range country. In addition, as shown in table
61, there are about 20.5 million acres of public and private lands
lying inside and outside the national forests that have been recom-
mended by the Forest Service and the Biological Survey for present
and future acquisition for the use of wildlife. Thus, only 7 percent
of the range country, or 65 million acres, is available in refuges and
proposed special areas for the use of wildlife. In addition to these
designated wildlife areas, however, there are about 845 million acres
of grazing, cultivated, and other land, or 86.7 percent of the total
western land area, that under proper use may be made jointly avail-
able to the production of wildlife, particularly of the smaller species,
such as birds, fur bearers, and fish. Of this area, 721 million acres
may be considered as jointly usable by wildlife and domestic live-
stock. The importance of securing a suitable wildlife management
on such an acreage is apparent.
'TABLE 61. — Recommended additional areas for wildlife ivithin the range area
inside and outside the national forests
States
Areas inside national
forests
Areas outside national
forests
Water-
fowl
areas J
All areas
Submar-
ginal,
now oc-
cupied
Private
land in
grazing,
not occu-
pied
Submar-
ginal,
needed for
wildlife
and water-
shed
Public do-
main needed
as supple-
mental range
Desired
projects
Acres
Acres
Acres
Acres
844,000
1, 219, 093
5, 441, 000
807, 561
68, 783
1, 597, 835
523, 000
1, 273, 000
1, 733. 390
158,000
515, 492
Acres
Acres
844, 000
1, 681, 248
8, 519, 469
1, 195, 612
530, 308
1, 665, 520
946, 048
1. 393, 382
2, 278, 787
217, 851
791, 865
124, 959
241, 102
73, 984
5,811
California
11, 740
65, 343
13, 408
20, 066
485
55, 100
271, 990
36, 870
189, 960
21, 000
396, 425
384, 540
2, 733, 776
259, 836
202, 159
12, 640
10, 775
7,360
77, 937
49, 340
33, 560
26, 623
120, 382
23,559
59, 851
19, 025
124, 959
14, 362
73. 984
5,811
Colorado - .. .. . . .
Idaho
Montana..
Nevada
New Mexico --..-.
Oregon .. ..
Utah
4,043
46, 735
471,060
Washington.
Wyoming
9,748
13, 779
233, 821
North Dakota—
South Dakota
5,350
65, 930
145, 000
10,460
Nebraska
Texas.
Total
130, 183
1, 097, 789
4, 442, 832
14, 191, 614
647, 528
20, 509, 946
1 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Summary Report of Land Acquisition
Progress, Nov. 15, 1935, 5 pp. (Photostated from typed sheets.)
Under protection on the national forests, as also on national parks
and State preserves, the population of the principal game species
have made phenomenal increases during the past 25 years. More
efficient law enforcement and consideration of wildlife problems by
States and other agencies concerned have contributed to this improve-
358
THE WESTERN RANGE
ment. Table 62 shows the estimates of wildlife on the national forests
within the range area for 1934. Figure 77 and table 63 show the
trend of big-game populations on national forests since 1924. It is
estimated that the increase in numbers of all big-game animals on the
national forests during the period 1924-34 is about 77 percent.
PERCENT
r-i GRIZZLY
^£U
MOUNTAIN
SHEEP
0 (\
-
lU, BEAR
r
EER
0
r
-
-i-u-i-i-LLU-
-10
~L-> u u
200
n 40
40
BLACK
AND
^_
—
BROWN BEAR
180
- ANTELOPE
20
'
20
H
f~h
r"
r
1 PL O
0
"
0
H-T
L
r
-10
-1 0
i 4 n
i 4 rj
r- r\
120
120
40
MOOSE
ELK
100
ft O
— •
100
D f)
p
20
0
|
J
~
—
H
-1
-10
R n
—
C f)
-
MOUNTAIN
-
40
-
40
-
"— *
40
- GOAT
—
-
20
0
20
0
20
0
"rflT
-1 0
. -10
-10
1925]
'6
7
'8'9'0'l '2 '3 (J934 1925)
'6
7 8 '90 'I 2 3 [1934 I925J 6 '7
89
b
'!
2
'3
(1934
FIGURE 77.— INCREASE OR DECREASE OF BIG GAME ON NATIONAL FORESTS.
The decrease in moose and grizzly bear from the 1928 peak is due partly to a change
in the method of taking the census and partly to cyclic changes in abundance from
unknown causes.
This development is effective as far as it has gone, but it is by no
means adequate to growing needs. It is an advance toward secur-
ing the social and economic values involved, but a further step is
now needed, namely, to obtain management of the wildlife resources
on a more comprehensive plan that will cover the range area as a
whole and be based upon an environmental control determined by
research. Leopold (85) states:
Both scientists and sportsmen now see that effective conservation requires,
in addition to public sentiment and laws, a deliberate and purposeful manipula-
tion of the environment — the same kind of manipulation as is employed in
forestry. They are also beginning to see that in game, as in forestry, this
manipulation can be accomplished only by the landowner, and that the private
landowner must be given some kind of an incentive for undertaking it.
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE
359
I
£
s
a!
g-a
oop
to M -*OiO«rH
i
S°3
od o
a
"5
•5
IlSESlls
il
si
00 <N
ctfeo
003000
T-Topfo' r-Too
O O
ic i i o
w i 10
<N
CO « c
•- ^ * r.^ r
sf
Soo Si
?5 rt(
eo'i-r<
lall
So
,^s
<N
§ i
CO T1H-
« tf
oT »o"
SI..8
; a
I!
"
43 S 2^^^§^g
b««S.Ss^§3§
^S^SSgort^^
360
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 63.-
•Numbers and trend of big game on national forests within the range
area, 1924-34
Species
1924
1925
1926
1927
1928
1929
Black and brown bear.
Grizzly bear
Deer
Elk
Moose
Mountain goat
Mountain sheep
Antelope
37, 752
724
492, 702
52,265
4,561
8,244
12, 033
5,058
39, 640
693
543, 411
71, 820
5,516
8,887
11, 652
7,552
40, 563
814
604, 981
82, 333
5,142
9,418
11, 285
6,942
43, 275
880
630, 613
74, 042
5,892
9,834
11,242
7,665
44, 265
947
676, 144
78, 075
6,421
9,798
11,824
8,494
42, 767
907
726, 177
82, 524
4,594
11,050
11,328
10, 219
Total.
613, 339
689, 171
761, 478
783, 443
835, 968
Species
1931
1932
1933
1934
Black and brown bear-
Grizzly bear
Deer
Elk
Moose
Mountain goat
Mountain sheep
Antelope
40, 651
870
786, 548
88, 083
4,904
11,566
11. 496
11, 142
40, 587
747
853, 280
96, 760
4.491
11, 262
11, 055
12, 725
41, 961
664
849, 300
103, 745
4,683
11, 736
10, 980
13, 150
45, 268
721
834, 005
115, 074
4,821
11,883
10, 625
14, 458
43, 706
672
874, 844
120, 520
5,030
12, 742
11, 620
15, 013
Total
955, 260
1, 030, 907
1, 036, 219
1, 036, 855
1, 084, 147
The unmistakable trend of increase in wildlife population under
natural environment, even with the handicap of ill-considered State
laws, is in sharp contrast to the general trend of decrease on the
more heavily depleted lands in other ownerships and under other
managements. This long-term and widespread experiment, although
the results simply confirm well-known biologic and ecologic laws,
yet points the way to a fresh start in wildlife management.
MAJOR PROBLEMS IN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
A fresh start toward restoration of wildlife populations — par-
ticularly of game birds and animals, and of fish — requires, first of
all, more general acceptance of established biologic and economic
facts. These include the following :
1. Wildlife is a product of environment and each species can suc-
ceed only under a specific environmental pattern, made up of de-
terminable and (except for climate and elevation) controllable
elements.
2. Management of wildlife starts with and is limited by manage-
ment and manipulation of environment.
3. Lacking established legal power to force conservative manage-
ment of land and environment, attempts to manage wildlife solely
under restrictive game laws can succeed only to the degree that
environment is independently maintained and improved. The key
to wildlife management rests with land ownership.
4. The legal theory which places title to wildlife in the State,
leaves little direct incentive to private or other public owners to
manage land in a way to favor wildlife.
5. Game species must be handled on a crop basis, with the annual
take adjustable to and definitely set on the basis of annual increase.
The problem differs not at all in this respect from that of main-
taining continuously productive flocks and herds of domestic birds
and animals.
AS A HOME FOR WILDLIFE 361
6. In addition, successful wildlife management is a problem in
applied biology, and requires, first of all, a factual basis, and sec-
ondly, professionally trained men to apply the facts. For game
species, such questions as sex ratio, best season for taking, desirable
degree of predatory control, and needed environmental changes,
must be handled on a flexible basis, adapting action to needs of
particular areas at particular times.
7. Given a suitable environment, and management on a crop basis,
most wildlife species can succeed on lands used by other wildlife
species, and by man and his domestic animals. If handled as a part
of conservative multiple-purpose land management, wildlife popu-
lations can be maintained or increased. Deliberate attention to such
things as reservation of feed for wildlife, both on summer and
winter range, are simply a part of good land management.
8. The logical outcome of theories and methods of wildlife man-
agement which depend on detailed and rigid laws, as heretofore
applied, is further reduction in population.
Restoration of far larger, more widely spread, and more readily
available populations of game birds, animals, and fishes, is the heart
of the wildlife problem. Hunting and fishing available to all, have
been a part of the American tradition. Maintenance of this oppor-
tunity for the tens of millions of actual or potential hunters and
fishermen who cannot afford to travel far, nor to pay high fees for
the privilege, is of increasing importance in the face of increasing
leisure.
Inevitably, public lands, managed to produce takable crops of
game and fish, must furnish the major opportunity for free public
hunting and fishing. The guides to future and effective restoration
programs are clear. Restoration of environment, whether of range
or forest — a function of land ownership — is the key to restoration
of wildlife. Management of wildlife as a crop, in accordance with
biological facts and laws, by professionally competent men, is in-
separable from management and manipulation of environment and
is therefore also a function of land ownership.
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION
By L. F. KNEIPP, Assistant Chief, Forest Service
THE SOCIAL NEED
Like other organisms, man has certain ecological requirements,
except that in his case they are not only physiological but also
psychological. In the course of his history man has been so in-
fluenced by certain natural associations that long-continued sep-
aration from them tends adversely to affect his body, his mentality,
and his spiritual outlook.
Modern life operates largely to effect such a separation. Ine inti-
mate contact with elemental nature under which man mainly de-
veloped his present physical and mental qualities gradually has been
succeeded by more confined modes of life, productive of greater
comforts and conveniences and conducive to a more complex econ-
omy and culture but in some ways less stimulating to the body and
mind. Particularly is that true of the urban dweller, who not only
largely is insulated from natural forces and influences but is sub-
ject to a tempo and tension that impose heavy demands upon both
physical and nervous energy.
The consequences of that condition are detrimental not only to
the individual but to society collectively. They impose losses not
only spiritual and social but also economic. The justice and desir-
ability of collective social action to check and correct the condition
are now generally recognized by both private and public agencies.
Private recognition consists of provision to the worker of time in
which to recuperate by renewal of associations with natural ele-
ments and forces; public recognition takes the form of provision
of environments within which such associations most effectively and
profitably may be renewed. To that end certain specific areas of
land customarily are partially or wholly withdrawn from other
forms of human use and service to make them available for recre-
ational uses, and are subjected to certain modifications or types of
development through which they most fully will contribute to hu-
man happiness and satisfaction. Inevitably such action requires
certain waivers of opportunity for industrial exploitation of nat-
ural resources, and certain outlays of labor, materials, and funds.
Analyses of the social and economic importance of outdoor rec-
reation in the western range States may be facilitated by separate
consideration of the recreational needs of the local population and
of the residents of the more remote and congested parts of the
country.
A natural assumption would be that persons who dwell in intimate
association with nature and the elements, as, for example, farmers,
miners, cowpunchers, sheep herders, trappers, et al., find in their
normal activities all of the inspirational influence of elemental nature
363
364 THE WESTERN RANGE
that they desire or need. That assumption is distinctly debatable.
Analysis of the early history of the western range States warrants
the assumption that the people who first occupied and populated them
were attracted in perhaps as great a measure by the spiritual com-
pensations as by the economic rewards. The beauty and interest of
their environment was as direct a compensation for the hardships
which they suffered as was the monetary return from an exploitation
of natural resources. Such intangible enumeration progressively
has given way to purely material considerations.
The primitive inspirational quality of much of the western range
country has been in large part destroyed. Where once stood beauti-
ful bodies of virgin timber there now are all too often melancholic
expanses of stumps, dead snags, and scanty covers of weed trees.
Where originally the mind was inspired by views of grass-covered
and flower-studded flats and slopes stretching to the horizon it is now
depressed by the sight of a terrain scoured and dissected by erosion
and only thinly covered by forms of plant life almost entirely devoid
of either utility or beauty. In areas once teeming with beaver, deer,
elk, bear, antelope, or other game animals, one perhaps may see today
only an occasional lone coyote as he tucks his tail between his legs
and scurries out of gunshot. Where a great variety of water fowl
once dotted the surface of every pond and stream only a few mud
hens may today be seen. These transitions have imposed real losses
upon the rural dwellers of the western range regions, losses for which
the improvements and conveniences of the modern order frequently
are only partial compensations. Perhaps many a woman of the
western range country gladly would forego some of the mechanical
conveniences she now enjoys if in lieu of the bleak prospect now
visible from the windows of her home she could regain some of the
beauty which remains in her memory of the earlier days.
Through the miraculous growth of its cities, the western range
country now has all of the problems presented by large urban popu-
lations which need and seek adequate fields for outdoor recreation.
The week-end flow and ebb of the tide of nature lovers is one of the
striking characteristics of practically every large western city. The
relative proximity of large expanses of open country, much of it in
public ownership and with widely diversified natural interests, may
nave stimulated the general tendency to spend leisure time away from,
the cities, but since the basic conditions of urban life in the West
differ but little from those of the eastern cities the needs of the
western city dweller for adequate outdoor playgrounds proportion-
ately will be as large and urgent as elsewhere.
But the social importance of the western range States as sources
of recreational, opportunity is by no means measured by the local
population. The airplane, the streamline train, and the motor car
now place the most remote parts of the western range in almost inti-
mate geographic relationship to the main concentrations of popula-
tion. Xot only that, these concentrations of population have so over-
taxed all locally available opportunities for outdoor recreation that
only in the western range States will there be found the detachment
and isolation without which certain classes of the population will be
unable to enjoy outdoor recreation in its fullest sense. In certain of
the Eastern States, with New York the most notable example, efforts
IX SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION 365
are being made to cherish and safeguard the last remnants of unex-
ploited nature, but the most that can be done along this line will be
so pitifully inadequate that in the future the recreational resources
of the western range States will have as vital a meaning to dwellers
in remote parts of the country as to their own citizens.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
Economy, in its broad sense, consists of an equitable balancing
of the needs and resources of the individual, the community, the
Nation, so as permanently to derive from the available resources
the maximum attainable satisfaction of needs. Unquestionably
people must have adequate spaces in which truly to recreate their
minds and bodies by reversion to simple modes of life and close asso-
ciation with elemental natural forces and phenomena, but unques-
tionably also they must employ in their industrial, commercial, and
economic processes the soils and products of soils which are basic
to their means of life and cultural advancement, and must so direct
the expenditure of their creative labor and capital as to obtain the
best net result in human enjoyment and security.
Boundless as the land resources of the United States hitherto
have seemed to be, they are after all definitely limited to 1,903,216,640
acres. If each specifically required major type of land use were sepa-
rately calculated, if one were to total up separately the acreage
required for farms, pastures, forests, wildlife refuges, parks, reser-
voir sites, transportation rights-of-way, towns and cities, etc., the
aggregate doubtless would greatly exceed the maximum available
acreage. If one were to compute separately the capital and labor
required to carry to full fruition the programs of development fixed
as the minima for each type of use the combined costs would greatly
exceed the maximum amounts that could be made available. Cer-
tain adjustments and multiple forms of use of lands and labor are
therefore inescapable. That rule applies as fully to the provision
of space and facilities for outdoor recreation as it does to any other
basic requirement of collective social action.
Then, too, the essentials of outdoor recreation are fixed in large
measure by individual interests and inclinations, hence are widely
diversified. Some people even in their periods of recreation find no
happiness away from the roar and surge of metropolitan life ; others
can find it only in remote and primitive solitudes. The large num-
bers of people who by preference spend their summer vacations on
farms demonstrate that to many the order and system of a rural
community has the strongest recreational appeal. There are even
those who derive maximum satisfaction from observing the opera-
tions of logging camp and sawmill, or the handling of bands of
sheep or herds of cattle. Some will feel that the vacation period
is wasted unless they have immediately available every modern con-
venience and organized form of amusement characteristic of their
metropolitan mode of life; to others the proximity of such features
is destructive of satisfaction and contentment.
To obtain the necessaries or luxuries of life which it cannot pro-
duce within its own limits, the western range country by economic
processes of exchange must barter a product or a service of equal
366 THE WESTERN RANGE
value. In the earliest stage of its occupancy by white man, fur was
the only one of its products which met the requirements of trans-
portation and demand. Next in order came the precious metals,
also readily transportable even under most difficult conditions and
also commanding a world market. Then came realization that grass
could be conveyed to a hungry and rapidly expanding market by
feeding it to livestock which could be moved on the hoof to points
where other transportation was financially practicable. Thus the
West laid the foundations for its economic structure by moving into
other more settled parts of the world such of its natural resources
as the world desired and for which it was prepared to exchange
the goods and services which the pioneer West needed but could not
in itself produce.
In time a new trend developed. The West contained other natural
resources less exportable than fur, gold, silver, and cattle. These
were such tangible resources as game animals, birds, and fish ; such
intangible resources as the inspiring beauty of unmodified nature,
the restorative and curative properties of a stimulating climate, the
emotional interest of a society founding itself in an environment
where all codes and conventions must be evolved under conditions
for which no precedents existed. The West thus attracted men
from all parts of the globe, who brought with them and freely ex-
pended the means or capital with which to maintain themselves or
to engage temporarily in appealing activities or pursuits. Thus
was the West further enabled to convert its natural resources into
permanent forms of economic wealth.
In time, wide networks of iron rails linked the scantily populated
West with the more densely populated East where there then existed
an ever-rising demand for all products of soil, mine, and forest. In
multiplying millions of acres the plow bit into the dense prairie
sod, subduing it to the production of grains and vegetables. Shafts
and drifts burrowed into the ledges of copper, lead, and zinc. In
hundreds of areas of virgin forest the quiet of nature was displaced
by the ring of the ax, the crash of falling trees, the rumble of log
wagons, and the discord of sawmills. In multiplying numbers there
appeared highly competitive industries, with all of the demands
made by such industries upon both nature and man. In its more
primitive phases mining disturbed but little the peace and beauty of
the virgin environment, and in its more intensive phases its influence
was localized and relatively of small extent. But between them,
grazing, farming, and logging profoundly influenced and modified
all parts of the West except where rugged mountain ranges defied
invasion by the means then available.
Need now exists to view the economic potentialities of the western
range in the light of current conditions and apparent trends. Pro-
found changes have occurred in both standards and priorities of use
and value. If it is impossible simultaneously to use a given area for
the production of beefsteaks and spiritual stimulation, steps should
be initiated promptly to determine which of the two products is
more important to the economic future of the region. Frequently it
will be found that continued use for the production of beefsteaks not
only threatens the ultimate destruction of the resource but cur-
rently attracts to the region from other sections a far smaller amount
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION 367
of money than would be attracted were the resource dedicated to
recreational and inspirational forms of use of a practically per-
petual character. Frequently it will develop that proper correla-
tion of the two types of use actually is productive of the highest
economic return. It is regrettable that decision on these points, not
only by landowners and livestock growers but by bankers and public
officials as well, so largely has been influenced by past history and
precedent and has been so little characterized by analytical deter-
minations of the degree to which any given area will contribute to
taxable wealth under one form of use as compared to another, or
under a logical correlation of two or more forms of use in proper
balance as compared to a single use which to justify itself must
be carried beyond safe limits of biological laws.
The economic signficance of the recreational use to the western
range States has long been evident. The historic development of
the western "dude ranch" is in itself a striking illustration. In prac-
tically all such "dude ranches" service to the guest has become the
primary function with the actual production of livestock a wholly
subordinate purpose. Many a cow town or sheep outfitting point
doomed to extinction by the exhaustion of tributary forage resources
has found in service to recreational visitors the means not only to
maintain but to enlarge its economic foundation. The dollar brought
to and left in the region by the tourist seeking only the beauty and
interest of nature has just as great a purchasing power and will
contribute as fully to the economic existence of the community as
will a dollar brought in through the production and sale of beef,
mutton, hides, or wool. Furthermore, the tourist dollar need sub-
tract nothing whatever from the sum total of available natural
resources, while the livestock dollar inevitably means the subtrac-
tion from the soil of at least a minute part of the calcium, po-
tassium, phosphorus, sulphur, or other elements essential to its
continued productivity.
The most recent and dependable estimates indicate that the out-
door recreationists of the Nation now expend annually a total of
approximately one and three-quarter billions of dollars, with every
prospect that the sum will increase with each passing year. Even
during the periods of deepest economic depression these dollars
flowed from the sections where they were most abundant into the
sections in which they spelled the difference between economic life
and death. It is true that they were used in the main to purchase
oil, gas, tires, motor repairs, food, lodging, supplies, equipment, etc.,
and that in large part they flowed back to the centers in which such
commodities originated, but they also were used to pay for a myriad
of local services and privileges and thus in part remained in the
area of distribution. To that extent they may be regarded as rep-
resenting the market value of the recreational resources of the region,
for without such resources the local services and privileges would
have had no value. No means exist by which accurately to compute
the monetary value of the natural resources by which this money
was attracted and held in the regions in which it was disbursed, but
the fact that the residual receipts permanently retained in local
circulation annually aggregate hundreds of millions of dollars seems
evident beyond dispute. At any reasonable rate of interest, the part
368 THE WESTERN RANGE
of the expenditure equitably creditable to the natural resources fixes
for such resources a capital value of billions of dollars. Proper
conservation of so huge a capital value dictates all reasonable meas-
ures and courses of action practicable of adoption.
Adequate conservation of the recreational values demands first of
all some modification of past and current processes of natural re-
source utilization so that they will be constructive rather than
destructive. The practicability of the necessary changes is fully
demonstrated by experience and precedent. No classes will be more
fully benefited by the changes than will the farmers, loggers, and
stockgrowers by which they will be made. Industries dependent
upon natural resources cannot be permanent and profitable unless
the resources are adequately perpetuated and wisely used. But be-
yond that factor of direct industrial dependence is the general inter-
est of the farmer, the logger, and stockgrower in the welfare and
economic strength of the community of which he is a part. If that
community is prosperous and has an assured economic future, local
markets are good, land and commodity values are high, credit is easy
and abundant, and all social, economic, and political institutions are
well maintained. Every citizen and property owner shares in its
benefits. If the community is faced with a decline in its natural re-
sources, markets are poor, land and commodity values suffer, credit
is uncertain and costly, there is a general break-down in all local
institutions, and the disintegration of the community destroys the
hope and prosperity of all its members.
THE ELEMENTS OF RECREATIONAL, VALUE IN THE WESTERN RANGE
STATES
The recreational potentiality of western range lands is wholly rela-
tive. It may be found in such superlative natural phenomena as the
Grand Canyon or Mount Rainier or Yellowstone Valley, or it may
reside in a flowing spring surrounded by clumps of aspen which
affords the dry farmers in some isolated valley the one readily avail-
able area in which to picnic and take their ease. On the basis of
proportionate benefit to numbers of persons, certain little canyons
and groves which are the natural and nearby recreational areas of
small farming communities have a higher social significance than
the Grand Canyon or the Giant Forest. The tragedy of past land
use in the Western States lies partly in the frequency with which
that fact has been overlooked or disregarded. The logging that
removed the grove of trees that created the recreational utility of
one area, or the grazing that destroyed the ground cover and pol-
luted and caved the banks of the stream that gave beauty and value
to another area, or the highway that invaded and destroyed the in-
timacy with nature in still another area, have not always returned
benefits in any measure commensurate with those destroyed. All too
frequently large intangible social values have been sacrificed to small
material gains because no means existed for relative evaluation or
to compel the action most in the public interest.
In outdoor recreation, as in all other human activities, individual
tastes and desires are widely diversified. However, it safely may be
assumed that if large numbers of people yearly make large expendi-
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION 369
tures of time, effort, and funds to enjoy certain conditions and
qualities of outdoor life and contact with nature, the areas in which
such conditions and qualities occur in unusual degree possess recrea-
tional values which clearly merit special consideration and treat-
ment. Otherwise such areas could not compete with the other mani-
fold forms of recreational opportunity. This test of successful com-
petition with alternative forms of entertainment and education
demonstrates that the western range States possess many and varied
forms of natural interest which, properly conserved, would serve
as a cornerstone of a permanent economic structure.
The Federal lands hitherto under resident management have been
rather thoroughly inventoried and cataloged, so that the parts pos-
sessing recreational appeal are now well known and appropriately
classified. But the 8 or 10 percent of the national land area popu-
larly referred to as the public domain has been placed under actual
management and supervision so recently that there has been no time
in which to determine and record the areas of high potential value
for public outdoor recreation. However, past observations and re-
ports warrant the belief that in the aggregate the recreational poten-
tialities of the public domain are large and of great social signifi-
cance. To truly approximate their real future value to the people
of the United States there must be consideration and analysis of the
types of service and appeal which they actually have rendered and
can continue to render if managed with due regard to the importance
of such service and appeal.
On first thought it might be assumed that a desert was wholly
devoid of any element of recreational utility, yet many people find
in a desert an absorbingly interesting and appealing manifestation
of certain natural laws, unique types of plant and animal life, evi-
dences of geological evolution, elemental factors influencing the prog-
ress of the human race, a tonic climate, a greatly desired absence
of modernistic culture, all combining to create in them the highest
attainable sense of satisfaction and contentment. But if the desert
is dotted with windmills and stock-watering tanks, if its unique flora
is unbalanced and its peculiar animal life is forced to change its
natural habits by the grazing of domestic livestock, if its brooding
silence is shattered by the engines and horns of passing motorcars,
and its emptiness is filled with gaudy gasoline stations and bill-
boards, its unusual power to serve certain human needs largely is
impaired, with no real assurance that society actually has benefited
by the change, or that the new order permanently will contribute
as much to the economic security of the local population as would
the old order if it were wisely perpetuated.
In the pioneer period, the apparently boundless plains were
marked at irregular intervals by water courses whose valleys sup-
ported growths of cottonwoods and ash and oak and other indigenous
trees, the openings in the forest cover carpeted with lush grasses and
flowering plants and shrubs. Dedication of these rich alluvial river
bottoms to plow and pasture seemed the logical and desirable course
and was the one generally followed. With the passage of the years
the alluvial soil all too often scoured to bedrock and the trees all too
often yielded to the ax or to fire or overgrazing. If today the people
64946—36 25
370 THE WESTERN RANGE
who crave and need outdoor opportunity could traverse such river
valleys without encountering "Posted" or "No trespassing" signs in
endless succession; could observe streams which were examples of
natural beauty, flowing between grassy banks and through natural
timbered areas, free from the pollution of silt and sewage, instead
of contaminated trickles of murky, shallow water, shifting with the
winds through wide expanses of mud and sand ; could find places to
camp, picnic, loiter, bathe, and swim free from intrusion, they would1
regard such areas as social and economic assets of the first order.
Where such stream valleys have escaped complete impairment of
their natural beauty their preservation against further impairment
is dictated by both past experience and future probabilities.
As they penetrated the virgin empire of the West, the pioneers
observed, too, knolls, buttes, and chains of hills with sides, and
sometimes summits, clothed with trees and shrubs. These lent
beauty and interest to the landscape and to the new life taking f ormi
within their view. But the trees which covered them could be used
to build houses, barns, corrals, and fences, or to heat homes or earn
a dollar through their conversion into railroad ties or sawlogs, so
they were cut. The grasses and weeds and shrubs which originally
adorned the buttes and hills could be used to keep the spark of life
in starving cattle or sheep and were so used. Thus what originally
were sources of beauty and inspiration to the dwellers of the region
all top often became objects of ugliness and devastation. No one can
question the action, which was an inevitable consequence of man's
struggle to create a new society. But the need for such sacrifices no
longer exists, and where, through fortunate accident, such knolls,,
buttes, and hills have retained their trees and carpets of shrubs,
weeds, and grasses, their protection from devastation will save to the
American people heritages vital to their future welfare and
enjoyment.
These citations of the detrimental effects of past industrial or com-
mercial use of natural resources do not necessarily imply that such
use invariably is incompatible with the preservation of the condi-
tions or qualities essential to outdoor recreation. The experience of
older countries and of parts of the United States refutes such a
premise. Wisely managed, farms add to rather than detract from
the attractiveness of their environment, without detriment to profits.
Logging conducted under sound principles of forest management
does not destroy the charm and inspirational quality of the forest.
If governing biological laws are reasonably observed the forage
products of fields and ranges can be full utilized without permanent
impairment of the vegetative cover. Many a slope and meadow in
the Western States, after a quarter or a third of a century of com-
plete utilization under sound principles of range management, is
carpeted each season with blooms and blossoms. The situation de-
mands nothing more than the general application to all lands of the
western range States of the principles and methods which upon a
part of such lands fully have demonstrated their practicability and!
effectiveness.
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION 371
THE LESSON OF THE NATIONAL PARKS AND NATIONAL FORESTS
Federal action during the past quarter century has taken the
subject of recreational use of wild lands out of the realm of surmise
and theory and has defined its true place in the land economy of
the western range States. The results of national-park and
national-forest management of lands susceptible to recreational uses
are now so clearly apparent that they safely may be used to formu-
late the principles and procedures which should apply to all planned
land use in the Western States.
Dedicated as they are to a single and wholly exclusive type of
social service, the national parks exemplify the educational, scientific,
and recreational importance of the areas of superlative natural or
historic interest and the beneficial economic consequences of a policy
which scrupulously preserves them from exploitation. But since
they embrace only the areas which are supreme within their classes
and completely withdraw such areas from any and all forms of
commercial and industrial utilization, the national parks afford
precedents applicable to only that very small proportion of the
western range country which meets the quality standards prescribed
for national and State parks.
Because of their wide geographic distribution, their large area,
the wide diversity of forest, land, and geological types which they
include, their intimate relationship to the economic life of the regions
in which they are situated, and their primarily utilitarian purposes
and objectives of management, the national forests provide a broader
and more generally applicable demonstration of the place and part
of outdoor recreation in the economy of the western range States,
and of the principles and procedures through which it can be corre-
lated with other associated uses of the same general areas so as
most effectively to realize its social and economic values and at the
same time permit a reasonable continuation of other types of indus-
trial and commercial utilization of lands and natural resources. This
fact justifies a somewhat detailed analysis of the past history of
the recreational use of the national forests, its beneficial and detri-
mental aspects, its growth, and the means by which it has been
harmonized with the basic objectives and administrative require-
ments of national-forest management.
By their very nature the lands reserved for national-forest pur-
poses are rich in all the elements of natural interest sought by lovers
of the out of doors. Great expanses of forest, towering peaks, deeply
dissected canyons, innumerable lakes, streams cascading over falls
or rippling through pleasant valleys, grass-carpeted glades or open-
ings, game animals, birds, and fish, fruits and flowers, unique
geological formations, and other interesting phenomena offer to
visitors almost endless opportunity for educational and entertaining
activities. Long before the forests were created the lands now
within their borders largely were used by the local residents for
recreational purposes. To the settler devoting all of his energies and
funds to the conversion of a quarter section of tough prairie sod
into a productive farm, and to his family, the seasonal trips to the
mountains were for fun as well as fuel. To the residents of the
raw little towns in the valleys the timbered hills offered beauty
372 THE WESTERN RANGE
and peace and freedom as an antidote to the monotony of the daily
routine. The miners found in the silence and natural charm of
the forests relief from the turmoil and labor of the mining camp.
Simple structures for summer occupancy, sometimes isolated, some-
times in small groups or colonies, afforded many families deeply
•cherished opportunity to escape the heat and dust of their habitual
environment. Present recreational use of the national forests is
the natural evolution of a social trend which was well defined at
the time the forests were established.
In time, new factors gave the recreational potentialities of the
forests far more than a local significance. The practicable develop-
ment of the automobile endowed many families with a new mobility,
which progressively expanded with the extension of the public high-
way system. The more general establishment of holiday and vaca-
tion periods largely increased the leisure time available for travel.
The dim blue line of mountains vaguely marking the horizon be-
came to the dwellers of the valleys a readily accessible outdoor play-
ground of which they were quick to take full advantage.
The consequence of this change is shown graphically in figure 78.
In 1917, when the Forest Service initiated the first systematic esti-
mate of the numbers of visitors, the total was 3,160,000. In 1934 it
was 38,063,098, or twelvefold. It is, of course, true that these figures
contain many duplications and do not represent the exact number
of persons who made use of or passed through the national forests,
since the individual who visited the same forest on several different
occasions, or who visited several different forests in succession, un-
doubtedly was counted several times. But notwithstanding their
imperfections the estimates do reflect the trends and changes in the
volume of public recreational use of the national forests and are
supported by the physical evidences of such increased use which are
manifest to any observer.
In the earlier stages of this development the forest officers re-
garded it with grave concern and some antagonism. It markedly
increased the hazards of fire and of water pollution, deprived range
livestock of access to indispensable sources of water supply, con-
flicted with logging operations and imposed heavy additional ad-
ministrative burdens. The summer-home communities, all too often
poorly planned, constructed, and maintained, marred with their
ugliness the natural charm of the forest, lake, or valley. The logi-
cal course appeared to be the limitation and eventual elimination of
forms of use so evidently inconsistent with the primary purposes
and functions of the national forests.
But as time passed appreciation developed of the tremendous social
and economic significance of this public recreational use. To mul-
tiplying millions it afforded opportunities for healthful stimula-
tion of body, mind, character, and citizenship not readily available
through other means. To the regions embracing the forests it
brought new sources of income, new markets for local products and
services, which otherwise would not exist. To the foresters it pro-
vided opportunity to demonstrate the real nature and meaning of
forest conservation and its true relationship to both individual and
national welfare. With this altered perspective, the visitors them-
selves, the local residents, the local officials, and the foresters engaged
with a new interest in the development of ways and means whereby
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION
this new use of the public properties could be reconciled with their
other traditional and essential uses and thus be enlarged in both
volume and public value.
The most obvious and urgent requirement was adequately to pro-
tect public property from destruction by fire, and public health from
the menace of water-borne diseases. So long as millions of persons
distributed themselves indiscriminately throughout the bodies of
timber and upon the watersheds of municipalities the situation was;
fraught with danger. The most logical approach was to induce*
voluntary concentrations of the summer visitors at points where the*
40
20
10
JL1
ml
n
1917 '18 '19 '20 '21 '22 '23 '24 '25 '26 '27 '28 '29 '30 '31 '32 '33 1934
FIGURE 78.— THE PROGRESS OF RECREATION ON FOREST RANGE.
From small beginnings the annual Influx of visitors on the national forests has assumed'
huge proportions and is growing. Numbers have more than trebled in the last 1O
years.
risk to public property and health could be reduced to a minimum,
by the provisions of proper facilities and by the opportunity for
more continuous supervision and control. To this end, series of
free public campgrounds were established in each national forest
and as rapidly as available funds permitted were developed with
simple facilities for sanitation, garbage disposal, control of fire,
and forms of recreation by which the visitors would be attracted to
and held upon the campgrounds instead of diffusing themselves-
widely throughout the forests. At present, approximately 4,20O
areas within the national forests are now designated as public camp-
grounds and of these 3,016 areas have now been equipped with at
least a part of the utilities and facilities essential to their proper
public use. In this work the Civilian Conservation Corps has been,
of inestimable value and additionally a great deal was accomplished
with relief labor under the several emergency-relief programs.
These campgrounds are not as a rule pretentious or provided with
more than the bare essentials but by their convenience and comfort
they draw and hold all but a negligible minority of the recreation-
ists and thus have greatly reduced the dangers to public property
and health which otherwise would occur.
374 THE WESTERN RANGE
There have been frequent allegations that as the extension of the
forest highway and forest development road gave public access to
additional areas of forest land there would be abnormal increases in
the numbers of destructive fires so that the net effect would be detri-
mental rather than beneficial. Experience has not supported this
theory. The road which gives the public access to new areas of
possible fire risk also permits the prompt attack of such fires as
occur so that they are extinguished before they attain serious pro-
portions. The ratio between the number of fires caused by summer
visitors and the total number of -summer visitors is now smaller
than in earlier years.
Provision having been made for the immediate requirements of
the transient visitors, the next step was systematically to inventory
the areas of more than average recreational quality and to perfect
plans for their development and use by the less transient types of
forest visitors. As each such area was determined its relationship
to the use and management of the forest was systematically analyzed
and where its public benefit was exceeded by the degree of its con-
flict with fire prevention, logging, grazing, water storage, road con-
struction, or other desirable activity, it was eliminated from the
program of recreational development. Areas found to be compati-
ble with other major purposes and uses were systematically mapped,
classified, and, as fully as practicable, developed. In this process of
classification the order of priority of the various types of use was
as follows :
1. Public campgrounds, motor camps, playgrounds, or picnic
grounds.
2. Health camps, summer camps, playgrounds, or picnic grounds
maintained by States, counties, or municipalities.
3. Health camps, playgrounds, or picnic grounds maintained by
semipublic organizations.
4. Health camps, summer camps, playgrounds, or picnic grounds
maintained by charitable, fraternal, denominational, or other like
organizations.
5. Summer schools conducted by public agencies.
6. Hotels, camps, and resorts operated on a commercial basis for
the accommodation of the general public.
7. Public utilities, such as stores, garages, filling stations, boat-
houses, liveries, etc., for which there is an actual public demand
and need.
8. Clubhouses, camps, resorts, and campgrounds maintained by
private organizations for the exclusive use of their membership and
not available to the general public.
9. Summer homes for the exclusive use of permittees and their
families.
Adherence to this principle of giving preference to the type of
use productive of the largest social benefit has prevented individual
monopolization of key national-forest areas and has resulted in bal-
anced types of development and use. While there are numerous
isolated cases, the greater proportions of the 12,783 summer homes
and the 977 hotels, resorts, and outdoor camps now under permit on
IN SUPPLYING AREAS FOR RECREATION 375
the national forests have been fitted in to a planned pattern of land
use through which each separate area is dedicated to the highest
practicable form of service.
With the so-called Bankhead bill of 1916, Congress began to make
increasing provision for highway and road construction within the
national forests, thus opening to motor travel numerous large areas
previously accessible only to horsemen or hikers. Many sincere
students and lovers of nature saw in this trend a threat to all areas
still in the primitive condition characteristic of the pioneer stages
of the Nation's history. To allay these fears the Secretary of Agri-
culture, by regulation, endowed the Chief of the Forest Service with
power to designate certain parts of national forests as primitive
areas within which there would be maintained to the fullest practi-
cable degree primitive conditions of transportation, habitation, sub-
sistence, and environment. It does not necessarily follow that such
areas will be closed to logging or grazing or water storage, but it is
specifically provided that within their limits there shall be no con-
struction 'of motor highways, other than the simple truck trails
required for fire suppression, no summer-home communities, and no
other forms of exclusive occupancy incompatible with the primitive
objective. The areas so designated now number 71 and embrace
within their boundaries an aggregate of 11,378,411 acres.
The plan-wise correlation of outdoor recreation with the numerous
other phases of land and resource use within the national forests is
far from complete. Time inevitably will disclose weaknesses re-
quiring correction. That fact notwithstanding, the process has been
carried forward sufficiently to confirm the general soundness of the
program, and to demonstrate that the concept of multiple uses of the
same lands, with outdoor recreation as a coordinate or in some cases
dominant use, is practicable of full realization. The adjustments
in methods of utilization and management needed to give complete
reality to the concept are all well within the practical limits of indus-
trial management and administrative organization. That they will
pay for themselves in permanence of resource, economic security,
community prosperity and individual health, happiness, and con-
tentment, 'seems now established beyond the possibility of successful
refutation.
Constructive development of the recreational resources of the west-
ern range lands can be credited to private initiative in only rather
limited degree. The greater part of what has been accomplished to
date is the work of public agencies as a feature of their management
of public properties. Private management of range lands usually is
motivated by rather narrow industrial objectives, but in the man-
agement of publicly owned lands the appropriate objective is the
realization of all forms of service and use in the fullest necessary and
attainable measure. Kecognition of the limitations of private action
in the conservation of recreational resources is concomitant recog-
nition of the necessity for public action to conserve and adequately
develop the recreational resources on the publicly owned lands.
376 THE WESTERN RANGE
FUTURE REQUIREMENTS
Adequate recognition of the social and economic advisability of
shaping the future land use of the western range States so that the
potentialities for outdoor recreation with which such States are
so richly endowed will not be impaired to the detriment of the
present and future generations.
Comprehensive studies of the true economic significance of outdoor
recreational use of lands, its real part in maintaining and enlarging
the industrial and commercial life and general economy of a given
region; with appropriate comparative studies of the volume and
permanency of the returns obtainable from other uses of the same
land incompatible with or destructive of recreational uses.
Systematic analyses of the elements of natural interest, scenic
beauty, wildlife, stimulating climate, and educational appeal which
are sought and desired by the lover of the out-of-doors ; classification
of all areas embodying such elements in abnormal degree; and
adoption of principles and plans of use and management through
which recreational use of such areas effectively can be correlated
with other desirable forms of use.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
By PAUL H. ROBERTS, Acting Director, Plains Shelterbelt; LEON C. HUBTT,
Senior Range Examiner; and LYLE F. WATTS, Director, Northern Rocky
Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station
INTRODUCTION
The use of native forage by domestic livestock in the West prob-
•ably began in 1598 when Don Juan de Onate brought 7,000 cattle
and probably some sheep and established colonies on the Kio Grande
River in north central New Mexico. Continuous use, however, did
not begin until about 1692 when De Vargas reconquered the Indians
who had rebelled and driven the white men out of the country.
Then for a century and a half numerous little villages basked j>eace-
fully in the southwestern sunlight along the Rip Grande, their in-
habitants content with the living derived from irrigated fields and
the cattle and sheep which grazed the surrounding hills. By the
early part of the eighteenth century a number of large and pros-
perous haciendas had developed in the Southwest, dependent on
mining, cattle, and farming. Some of these haciendas grazed large
numbers of cattle. The San Bernardino, which was about 17 miles
east of the present town of Douglas, Ariz., once ran 100,000 head
•of cattle, 10,000 horses, and 5,000 mules (70).
Another section of this report has told how, from its beginning
in the Southwest, California, Texas, and the mining camps, livestock
quickly occupied the entire range country. This industry was at
first almost wholly pastoral. Based upon the sole use of native
forage, it was naturally transitory in character and subject to many
vicissitudes.
But even during these early days of the vast range livestock
industry, crop farming began to appear here and there throughout
the West and before long to ally itself closely with stock raising.
Disappointed gold seekers began to farm in the great valley of Cali-
fornia in the early fifties. The Mormons in Salt Lake Valley began
to grow lucerne and other crops on irrigated tracts about the same
time. Even while the cowboy — that picturesque figure of the West —
sang his "lament" to the herd on the Chisholm Trail, the breaking
plows turned under ever-increasing acreages of lush grass sod on
the prairies. Daniel Freeman patented the first homestead near
Beatrice, Nebr., in 1869. In the seventies ranchers began to cut
native hay on the Platte and Arkansas Rivers in Colorado, first to
supply Army posts, and later for winter feeding of range livestock.
Soon visionaries were dreaming of the Roosevelt and Pathfinder
Dams, the Boise, Minidoka, and other reclamation projects.
Thus crop farming was developing within the same territory and
upon land first used for grazing. By 1900 there were 242,908 farm
units in the 11 western range States with 93,797,000 acres 41 of land
in farms; in 1910 there were 373,337 farm units and 110,862,000 acres
41 These acreages include all land in farms regardless of ownership (i. e., private, State,
county, and Indian lands).
377
378 THE WESTERN KANGE
of land in farms. The first big irrigation dam — the Shoshone —
was completed in 1910, the Roosevelt in 1911, and others followed.
Western agriculture became more and more diversified. Specialty
crops, largely independent of the use of range forage, such as fruits,
nuts, cotton, and vegetables were grown, mostly on irrigated lands.
In great part, however, crop farming was dependent on range use
by domestic livestock. In some places use of the range by live-
stock developed coincidentally with the growing of grains, forage^
and other crops. Meat packing and processing plants were estab-
lished over the West and the fattening and finishing of range steers
and lambs with western-grown feeds began and grew. Many of
those engaged in crop farming also grazed domestic livestock on the
range and thus more and more people became dependent in part
upon grazing. By 1930 there were 775,748 farm units and 392,159,-
936 acres of land in farms in the entire range country, and the tex-
ture of western agriculture had become in great part an interwoven
complex of interdependent crop farming and grazing of range land.
THE MAGNITUDE OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
A substantial part of the total wealth of the West comes from its
agricultural development. In contrast with the Middle West, this
development has not been easy. In the Middle West, as a result of
ample precipitation, the lands were in large part ready for crop-
ping when the settlers arrived. All that was necessary was the
breaking up of the virgin sod, the planting of the seed, and the
cultivation and harvesting of the crop. The semiarid conditions of
the West, however, imposed a much heavier burden. Irrigation de-
velopments, usually at a heavy cost per acre served, had to be com-
pleted before the land was ready for tillage and the raising of cul-
tivated crops.
Huge expenditures by the Federal Government, the States, and
private enterprise have been made for the development of irrigation,
roads, range improvements, and other construction projects. Addi-
tional expenditures have been made in developing new species or
strains of fruits, vegetables, grains, forage, and livestock adapted
to western conditions; in the prevention and control of insect pests
and disease scourges; in financial loans, and in other ways, to im-
prove and give stability and permanence to western agriculture.
Farm lands, buildings, machinery, and farm and range livestock
form a substantial part of the wealth taxed for the support of State
and local governments, educational and other institutions, and im-
provements. These lands, buildings, and machinery in the range
region in 1930 (1930 census) were valued at 11.5 billion dollars, or 22
percent of the comparable total for the United States. The num-
ber of livestock was 63,092,000 valued at 1.4 billion dollars.
Domestic production of wool and mohair is primarily in the range
territory. In 1930 the production of these commodities was 276,-
217,000 pounds, with a value of about $82,134,000 (75 percent of the
366,317,000 pounds valued at $113,317,000 produced in this country) .
The full importance of any business to a community is not, how-
ever, expressed by statements of values in dollars. It is the flow of
money in a community which supports the stores, the banks, the
churches, the schools, and in fact the whole community existence.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 379
That the direct value of crop products from the range States was
$1,600,354,000 and of livestock was $476,135,000 in 1930 only partly
expresses its magnitude. It is even more significant when expressed
in the standard of living of about two million American families,
plus the contribution which is made to all of the business enter-
prises which serve the agricultural undertaking. It hardly need be
said that the agriculture of the West affects local, national, and
world trade and penetrates into the whole social and economic fabric.
DIVERSE PATTERNS OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
The range country encompasses wide expanses of plains, plateaus,
mountains, and lowlands, with almost every degree of intermixture
and arrangement. Within such an area there are many conditions of
soil, of rain and snowfall, of temperatures, and of vegetation. In
general, however, it is semiarid country with crop farming on scat-
tered irregular areas of widely different sizes and condition — fertile
irrigated and subirrigated tracts in the valleys along the base of the
mountains, or on the plains where water is available ; supermarginal
and submarginal dry farms sometimes in large blocks, sometimes
dotted here and there with no apparent semblance of order; native
hay lands in the mountain meadows, along the mountain valleys —
and on the plains ; and enveloping all of these are the range lands.
Over such a large area, and under such a wide variety of influencing
•conditions the patterns are many and varied, but they fall into two-
general forms, specialized crop farming and combined crop farming'
and range livestock grazing.
SPECIALIZED CROP FARMING
Specialized crop farming is devoted primarily to the production
of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and other specialty crops. For the most
part, it is conducted on very high value fertile lands, where ade-
quate water is obtainable for irrigation. This type of agriculture
devotes suitable land to its highest use and is of great economic
importance. In general, however, it has but indirect relationship
to the use of range-land forage.
CROP FARMING AND RANGE LIVESTOCK GRAZING
Variations in the association of crop farming for other than
specialty produce and range livestock operations are innumerable.
At one extreme is the wheat and cotton farmer, whose operation
may be but indirectly related to range use. At the other is the
yearlong livestock operation, to which little or no cropland is at-
tached. In between these extremes is a great number of combina-
tions of farming and range livestock operations. Here cultivated
crops furnish the main cash income with sometimes the livestock
grower as the only available marketing opportunity. There live-
stock raising is the major business, with farming merely to produce
the necessary supplemental feed. Elsewhere the harvested crop-
lands and even the vineyards and orchards furnish forage. And
again a hay producer depends on the stock owned by his neighbors
to furnish a market for his product. Thus the farms and the
ranges of the West, whether they be in Arizona, Utah, Montana,
"380 THE WESTERN RANGE
California, or Washington, are so interdependent one with the other
that to think of either separately is impossible. While no attempt
can be made to list all combinations, it is feasible to distinguish
the following distinctive types :
1. Consisting entirely of range lands used for livestock produc-
tion— all supplemental or fattening feeds purchased.
2. Consisting of range land used for livestock production and of
limited areas of crop land used for raising small amounts of supple-
mental feed for saddle and work animals. Additional supplemental
tfeed purchased.
3. Range lands used for livestock grazing with crop farming suffi-
cient only to provide supplemental feed.
4. Innumerable variation of range lands used for livestock pro-
duction and crop lands used for cash crops, and to provide supple-
mental feed for range livestock.
5. Various combinations of range livestock and crop farming,
together with other part-time occupations as, for example, "dude"
iranching.
6. Dairy farming. Use of range confined to summer pasturage for
xiry cows and heifers.
7. Crop farming entirely, with milk and work stock using adjacent
range.
8. No range use — crop farming for the production of grain or
•other cash crop. The only direct dependence on the range is sales
of supplemental feed and plowed and irrigated pastures for use by
a-ange livestock.
SIZE OF FARM AND RANCH OPERATIONS
Within the types described there is an equally great variation in
the size of outfits. They may have as few as 5 to 10 head of cattle
or sheep or as many as 60,000 cattle, and 80,000 sheep, or more.
Acreages of land controlled may vary from as little as 10 acres of
farm land to 400,000 or 500,000 acres of range land with some farm
land. There are some limited instances of probably 1,000,000 acres
in a single ranching operation.
PRODUCTS OF FARM AND RANGE OPERATIONS
The products of western agriculture consist in part of the things
that grow from the soil and in part of the animals which feed on
them. Grain crops and other products, chiefly livestock feeds, are
produced on the cultivated areas and are in large measure consumed
by the ultimate marketable product — livestock. The other major
product, the range forage, often determines whether, or not a well-
rounded and profitable agricultural business results. Thus the
products of the farm and of the range are so thoroughly integrated
in the economic structure of the western agriculture that they are in
truth inseparable.
Livestock and Livestock Products
Some idea of the extent to which range livestock contributes to
the possible prosperity of western agriculture can be obtained from
the following figures :
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 381
The estimated present numbers of livestock other than milk cows
and swine in the IT range States are 13,737,000 cattle, 32,407,000
sheep, 3,531,000 horses, 531,000 mules, and 4,664,000 goats. In addi-
tion, there are estimated to be 3,509,000 milk cows, and 4,714,000
swine. Use of the range by both milk cows and swine is, however>
of minor consideration.
Range forage is used chiefly by meat cattle, sheep, horses, andi
goats. The usual range livestock operations graze either cattle or
sheep, but combinations of two or three classes of stock are not
uncommon. Few ranches graze horses exclusively.
Livestock products vary with the suitability of the range and crops,
to produce certain classes of meat animals, and with trade demands..
Changes in livestock breeds and in type of animal produced are
often made to meet changes in public fancy for meats of different-
classes or to meet trade demands for various grades of wools. While
there are infinite variations over such a large territory as the range
States, ranching operations from the standpoint of products may be
placed in several major groups.
1. Feeders and stackers. — Feeders and stockers are the major prod-
ucts of most cattle ranches. They are sold by producers either as
feeders for finishing as fat cattle on grain, crop forage, or feed con-
centrates, or for further conditioning on crop-land roughage in>
winter, or on grass pasture during the spring, summer, and fall.
Large numbers of feeder steers are sold as "long vearlings", or about
15 to 18 months old. Feeders and stockers include steers, heifers,,
cows, and bulls (171).
2. Gross-fat cattle. — Many ranches having an abundance of sum-
mer forage turn off in the fall cattle that are in condition to slaugh-
ter. Large numbers of steers, dry cows, heifers, and bulls are sold;
in grass-fat condition. Grass-fat stock, particularly steers, are often,
subject to competition between packers for immediate slaughter and;
feeders for finishing.
3. Aged steers. — Three and 4-year-old steers are still grown on,
some ranches. Production has decreased over the years, however,,
as exports markets for heavy beef have decreased, and as domestic
fancy for beef has turned more to lighter cuts. Especially goods
range forage is required to produce this class of stock in acceptable
flesh.
4. Calves.— Public fancy for light cuts of meat and young beef
has turned many ranches to the marketing of calves at weaning:
age. Large numbers of these calves are fattened and marketed
as "baby beef."
5. Feeder and mutton lambs. — Sheep growers produce both feeder
and mutton lambs. The lambs which reach the market in middle
and later summer or early fall are sold either as feeders or fat
lambs for immediate butcher, depending largely on their condition.
Also many lambs are sold directly as feeders to operators who fat-
ten them for later marketing. The late summer and fall runs of
range sheep fall in this class. Old ewes are also fattened for mature-
mutton.
6. Spring lambs.— Many sheep growers produce spring lambs
which are marketed during the slack spring period after the heavy
sales of winter-fed lambs and before the heavy summer sales of fair
382 THE WESTERN RANGE
lambs. The earliest of these, known as "Easter" or "hot-house"
lambs, are produced mainly in Arizona and California by supple-
mental feeding of mother ewes on cropland forage and concen-
trates, and by use of irrigated pasture during the winter period.
Idaho, California, Oregon, and Washington produce large numbers
of "milk fat" lambs which are marketed during the spring and
early summer soon after the early runs of "Easter" lambs.
7. Fat cattle and lamb finishing. — Feeding and finishing of cattle
for slaughter has increased in the range States with the increase in
crop farming and with the increased production of corn and other
grains, alfalfa and other hay, and feed concentrates. For example,
on January 1 of the last year for which figures are available, there
were estimated to be 402,000 head of cattle and 1,560,000 lambs on
the feed lots in the 11 western range States. Lambs, however, are
often fed and shipped to market as fast as they are put in condition,
and then replaced, so that the number on feed on any one date does
not indicate the total number marketed during a season. Feeding
operations are conducted by (1) operators who produce the feeders
and purchase feed from crop farmers and others, (2) feeder pro-
ducers, who grow their own grain and hay, (3) crop farmers who
purchase feeder cattle for fattening, (4) contract feeding under vari-
ous systems, (5) and independent operators who buy both stock and
feed.
8. Dairy stock. — Many dairy farmers throughout the West depend
on the range for pasturage for dry cows and young heifers being held
for replacement of aged cows.
9. Purebred livestock. — Purebred livestock are raised to some ex-
tent throughout the West, for local and interregional markets.
10. Wool and mohair. — Wool is a major product of all sheep-rais-
ing and mohair of goat-raising operations. Wool varies in quality
from the fine wools of the Merino and Rambouillet breeds to the
medium and coarse wools of the mutton breeds of sheep.
11. Saddle and light work horses. — These are raised usually in con-
nection with cattle operations. With the mechanization of farming
there was small demand for horses, but during the past few years,
with returning use of horses, sales have been good and have been an
important source of income to many farmers and ranchers in the
range States.
12. Hides and pelts. — These are a product of all cattle and sheep
operations.
Cropland Products
Crops grown by farmers and ranchers vary widely depending on
soil types, climate, irrigation, needs for diversification of products,
and requirements for supplemental forage and fattening feeds. The
wide variety and combinations of crops produced precludes any at-
tempt at detailed classification; there are, however, some general
types which may be recognized :
1. Native hay usually with limited corn or small grains. — In many
cases such crops are used almost exclusively for supplemental feed-
ing of range livestock either as a part of a combined crop-farming
and grazing operation, or by livestock operations which purchase
supplemental feed.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 383
2. Native hay and alfalfa, limited corn or small grains. — Such
crops are often used primarily for feed in connection with a com-
bined crop-farming and livestock operation. They may, however, be
in part used and in part sold as cash crops, with innumerable varia-
tions according to the operating set-up of different "outfits."
3. Wheat farming, with limited other small grains. — Wheat farm-
ing in the main is for the production of a cash crop but other crops
are usually grown also, which, together with stubblefields and forage
byproducts, furnish feed for livestock.
4. Combination crops of alfalfa, grain, sugar beets, potatoes, and
truck.— Alfalfa,, beet pulp, and grain straw furnish suppplemental
and fattening feeds for livestock. They may be used by the pro-
ducer for feeding stock raised by him or sold to livestock operators.
5. Corn, beans, and sorghums, grown primarily for feed. — Dry-
land farming may be limited to a small variety of crops which are
used primarily as supplemental feed for range livestock.
6. Cotton, wheat, and sorghums. — Crop production in parts of
Oklahoma and Texas consists chiefly of various combinations of
cotton, wheat, and sorghum crops. The cottonseed concentrates
and sorghums are used as feed for livestock, either as part of a com-
bination farming and livestock operation or for sale to livestock
frazers. Cotton is also grown under irrigation in Arizona, Cali-
ornia, and New Mexico.
Thus the feeder steers, the baby beeves, the feeder lambs, the
finished cattle, and other livestock usually depend for salability in
greater or less degree upon the hay, the grain, the sugar beets, the
corn, and the sorghum produced on the crop lands. Too often
without the farm the range would be unprofitable and without the
range there would be no market for the products of the farm.
SEASONAL USE
Just as there is great diversity in the type and size of the opera-
tion and in the kind and method of marketing the products grown,
so also there is a wide variety in the customs and requirements for
seasonal use of the range. That this should be true, naturally
follows from the great spread in climate, topography, and vegetative
types included in the range country.
Range lands are grazed for different periods, from 3 or 4 months
in summer to the full year. Seasonal-use ranges are usually placed
in four major classes — spring and fall, winter, spring-fall-winter,
and summer (fig. 79).
The use of spring, summer, and fall ranges is governed primarily
by altitudinal variations and general climatic conditions. Year-
long use is confined to areas where winter climate is mild, and to
types of forage which cure well on the stalk and provide nutritious
dry feed. Large areas, however, adapted by climate and forage to
yearlong grazing, are used only during the winter season, because
of their proximity to summer range in the mountains, or to crop
lands where they are used in connection with supplemental feeding
of forage crops, and irrigated pasture. Other areas otherwise suited
to yearlong use, because of absence of permanent water, may be
grazed only during periods when temporary water from rain or snow
384
THE WESTERN RANGE
is available. Use of some ranges upon which the forage consists of
annual species which dry up during the summer months, are con-
fined to fall, winter, and spring grazing.
There are, within wide latitudes, several general characteristics
of seasonal use by ranching operations.
SEASONAL RANGE
Areas Mostly Ungrazed, Includ-
ing Cultivated Land, Nationa
Parks, National Monuments,and
Waste, Inaccessible.and Densely
Timbered Areas
Spring-Pal I-
Winter
Note: The Seasonal Zones Indicate Dom
Seasonal Use. Within any Seasonal Zone
There May be Minor Use During Other Seasons
— ^ — EASTERN LI MIT OF
RANGE TERRITORY
FIGURE 79.— SEASONAL-USE AREAS.
in the mountain regions the shortage of range for spring-fall use presents a serious
problem, particularly as deterioration is greatest on this class of range.
1. Use of one range unit throughout year. — Such use is confined
to areas where climatic conditions are favorable, and forage species
furnish nutritious dry feed after the growing season.
2. Use of range all year with removal from low areas in winter
to high areas in summer. — Sheep are sometimes trailed or shipped
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 385
200 miles or more twice during the year between summer and winter
range ; cattle are usually moved but short distances. ^
3. Use of range in spring, summer, and fall with short winter -
feeding season on products from crop farming. — Many small and
moderate-sized operations winter-feed on crop forage for varying
periods.
4. Long period. — This consists of 7 to 10 months on summer range
and 2 to 5 months winter-feeding period, with some continual use
of range except for storm periods or deep snow. Prevalence of
severe winters in some parts of the West preclude winter grazing
except to a limited degree, and stock are fed during the winter season.
This is practicable only where forage crops and hay, usually pro-
duced wholly or in part on crop and hay lands operated by the
livestock concern, provide reasonably priced supplemental feed.
5. Rotation "between Copland pasturage and range at various
seasons. — Owned or leased stubble fields and cutover hay lands are
used by many operators in late fall for periods of 2 weeks to a
month or more, also after stock are removed from the range and
before winter feeding begins. Winter wheat in some sections is
grazed for varying periods in late fall and early winter. In Cali-
fornia particularly, cropland and irrigated pasturage are used
during the summer period when range feed dries up.
Thus the seasonal use of the range varies all the way from year-
long continual use to a short period during the summer. The char-
acter and availability of farm-grown forage and supplements, the
character of the range, and the climate, all enter into the determina-
tion of the grazing season for any given locality.
LAND TENURE AND CONTEOL
In no phase of western agriculture is there wider diversity than
in that of land tenure and control. This varies from the tramp
stockman who owns no land and leases little for his precarious but
often profitable operation, to the substantial operator who owns the
farms, ranches, and ranges on which his stock graze throughout the
year. In between there are many combinations of ownership, leases^
permits, and unauthorized use. Primary factors which influence
tenure and control are (1) the variegated pattern of land ownership
in the West, (2) purchase prices and leasing costs of land as com-
pared with its productivity values, (3) the methods of handling stock
on the range, (4) forms of Federal reservation of public lands,
(5) the extent of unreserved public domain usable as free commons,
and (6), in part, the purposes of land occupation since the beginning
of settlement. A few important general types of land tenure and
control require definition.
Range Land
1. All owned ly ranching operation. — There are comparatively few
livestock operators who own in fee simple all of the range land re-
quired by the outfit.
2. Owned and leased in varying proportions. — Use of leased land
in connection with varying proportions of owned land is a very
common system of range tenure throughout the West.
64946—36 26
386 THE WESTERN RANGE
3. National-forest range. — Many range livestock operators, large
and small, are entirely dependent on feed grown on owned crop land
and forage on the national forests.
4. Owned or leased land, public domain, and other publicly owned
ranges. — The most common type of outfit owns some farm and some
range lands, leases a varying acreage of both from private parties,
uses the unreserved public domain for certain seasons, and utilizes
national forests, Indian reservations, or State land under permit
or lease, as the case may be, for the remainder. Normally the
national forests provide high range required for the summer season.
5. No owned range — Many livestock concerns operate entirely
on leased range lands or with varying acreage of leased range used
in connection with unreserved public domain and other free range.
6. The tramp sheepman. — This class of sheepmen, who controls no
range nor owns a ranch, is disappearing.
The fact that the right or the privilege of occupancy of range land
is held by various methods does not in innumerable instances insure
the grazier control of his areas to the exclusion of others. Many
ranges are used in common by a number of concerns who individ-
ually own or lease widely scattered and intermingled parcels of land,
among which may also be included unreserved public domain or other
free range. Individual control of such ranges for purposes of good
land management and husbandry is impracticable. In other cases
owned and leased lands may be strategically located to control water-
ing places or ingress or egress to grazing areas in such a manner as
to give virtual control on the range unit.
Cropland
Much crop land used by livestock concerns is owned, but large
acreages of irrigated pasturages and some crop-producing areas
.are leased.
REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CROP- AND RANGE-LAND AGRICULTURE
In the development of the West, partly as a result of precedents
which came with settlement, partly as a result of wide differences
in market possibilities for the products raised, and partly as a result
of differences in such controlling features as climate, topography,
and the availability of water for irrigation, rather distinctive re-
gional differences have been built up. Although sharp dividing lines
cannot be drawn and the characteristics of one region may gradually
merge with those of another, the major differences justify the recog-
nition of four broad regions.
PLAINS REGION
The Plains region as used here includes the range area east of the
Hockies and north from southern Colorado and the Oklahoma Pan-
handle to Canada. This region is well adapted to a highly inter-
dependent crop farming and range agriculture. The remaining
range areas of the tall-grass prairies and most of the short-grass
plains are within this region. The range lands in general support
AS AN INTEGRATED PAKT OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 387
a good growth of nutritious forage, used in close relationship with
a large amount of dry-land crop farming and some irrigation, par-
ticularly along the North and South Platte and Arkansas Rivers
and in Montana. Grains, sorghums, corn, sugar beets, alfalfa, and
other crops, together with native hay, furnish large quantities of
supplemental and fattening feeds. The area around Greeley, Colo.,
for example, is one of the important lamb-feeding sections of the
West.
Livestock are grazed for the most part during a long summer
season varying from 7 to as much as 10 months, and in some in-
stances yearlong. The prevalence of severe winters and at times
intense blizzards and drifting snow requires winter feeding of sup-
plemental crop forage. Because of the high productivity of these
ranges in general, they turn off large numbers of grass-fat cattle
as well as feeders.
In spite of naturally favorable conditions for integrated agri-
culture, this region, with some notable exceptions, presents major
range problems. The relatively level to rolling topography led
to widespread homesteading and to attempts to grow wheat on land
which is now known to be submarginal for such use. Because of
this submarginal farming much of the region is characterized by a
high percentage of abandoned farms and deserted homes. Further-
more, the land ownership pattern is complex and confusing, owing
to remnants of State land, tax-reverted county land, mortgage-fore-
closed land in the hands of insurance companies and financial agen-
cies, railroad grants, and a large percent of nonresident-owned pri-
vate land as a result of speculation. Generally, owned land forms
a high percentage of the operating acreage of ranching concerns.
Some outfits lying along the eastern front of the Rockies use
national-forest range. The regional characteristics are reflected in
ranch organization.
A group of 77 ranches studied in North Dakota, South Dakota,
Montana, and Wyoming run an average of about 300 head of cattle
and control by ownership and lease an average of 5,692 acres of
land (ISJ). More than half of the ranches made some use of
national-forest or public-domain ranges. The average total area
owned and leased was divided up as follows :
Acres
Owned crop land (6 percent) 344
Leased crop land (0.6 percent) 34
Owned grazing land (48 percent) 2,746
Leased grazing land (45 percent) 2,568
Studies in eastern Colorado (25) toward the southern portion of
the Plains region show a trend toward larger outfits, less crop land,
and more leased grazing acreage. Twenty-two ranches, running
usually a little over 1,000 head of cattle, had an average controlled
area of 19,071 acres, as follows:
Acres
Owned crop land (1 percent) 187
Owned grazing land (32 percent) 6,092
Leased grazing land (67 percent) 12,792
388 THE WESTERN RANGE
SOUTHWEST REGION
The Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico, and the range
country of Texas, embraces large areas of low -lying desert and
semidesert, broad plateaus, and comparatively few isolated mountain
ranges.
Climatic conditions and forage types are favorable to yearlong
use of the range. Dry-land crop farming is limited to scattered
areas varying greatly in size and in general is very uncertain.
There are some irrigated areas along the base of the mountains and
in the mountain valleys and several large reclamation projects.
Because of this lack of well-distributed crop farming, livestock
concerns are highly dependent on the range-forage resource. Crop
farming by range-livestock outfits, except in a few favored localities,
is extremely limited, and supplemental feed is purchased, usually at
expensive figures, when necessary to meet shortages of range forage.
The low forage productivity of the range and lack of diversifica-
tion result in many large livestock concerns, both in numbers of
livestock and range areas controlled.
The cost per animal unit of range improvements for control and
management is high. Lack of adequate natural stock water over
much of the range necessitates costly water development.
The low grazing capacity, dry-feed ranges produce chiefly feeder
cattle and feeder lambs. In Arizona, however, the irrigated crop
farming and pasturage on the Salt River Valley projects enable
some sheep growers to produce early milk-fat "Easter" lambs.
Acreage prices of land, grazing capacity considered, are high,
and there is a high proportion of tenure by lease. In Texas 82 per-
cent of the land is privately owned, often in large blocks, and 18
percent is State owned. As a result, ranching operations in Texas
show a high proportion of owned land in rather compact units of
management.
Also in the northern portion of the Texas range area there is
considerable crop farming. Wheat, grain, sorghums, and cotton-
seed concentrates provide supplemental feed for use in connection
with livestock grazing.
Studies of ranch organization show the means of land tenure,
the acreage relationship of crop and grazing land, and size of out-
fits for different groups of ranches in the Southwest (99). Eighty-
three ranches in Arizona and New Mexico, grazing an average of
2,087 head of cattle, controlled on the average 79,326 acres of land,
distributed as follows : Acres
Owned crop land (0.08 percent) 62
Owned grazing land (8 percent) 6,165
Leased grazing land (29 percent) 22,852
National-forest range (9 percent) 7,602
Public domain (54 percent) 42,645
Another group of 11 ranches, each grazing about 1,500 cattle and
6,300 sheep, controlled an average total of 96,840 acres of land, com-
prising the following : Aoreg
Crop land (0.1 percent) 96
Owned grazing land (32 percent) 31,171
Leased grazing land (49 percent) 46,996
National-forest range (7 percent) 6,759
Public domain (12 percent) 11,818
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 389
The high percentage of private ownership of land in Texas is
reflected in land tenure of individual ranches. Twenty-eight ranches
studied in western Texas used an average area of 71,705 acres for
2,300 cattle, as follows: Acres
Owned crop land (0.04 percent) 30
Owned grazing land (73 percent) 52,574
Leased grazing land (27 percent) 19,101
Another group of three sheep and cattle ranches used an average
area of 21,600 acres, all of which was owned land, and grazed an
ayerage of 303 cattle and 3,789 sheep.
One large ranching concern reflects the greater degree of crop
farming in the Texas Panhandle country. This ranch, which runs
17,000 head of cattle, comprises 1,400 acres of farming land and
420,000 acres of grazing land, all of which is owned.
MOUNTAIN REGIONS
The mountain regions (Intermountain, Northern Kockies, and
Pacific Northwest) are characterized by high mountain areas and
low-lying valleys and plains.
The mountains supply large quantities of water, and irrigated
crop farming is interspersed frequently throughout the grazing
lands, usually along the base of the mountains and in the valleys.
There are several large irrigation projects, and a wide variety of
crops are produced which afford supplemental and fattening feeds
for range livestock. Mountain meadows and subirrigated valleys
produce native hay and cultivated crops.
As crop farming has developed in this region, the range livestock
business has become more and more interlocked with it, and in fact
the use of large areas of range land was possible only after crop-
fanning supplied required winter feeds.
Because of sharp changes in altitude and the high mountain
ranges, there is a very distinctive seasonal use of the range between
winter, spring and fall, and summer. The high mountain ranges
are used for periods of 3 to 5 months in summer, the lower slopes
of the mountains for periods of 2 to 6 weeks in spring and fall, and
the low valleys and plains — either as range, farm pasture, or feed
lots — are used during the winter.
The national-forest system covers much of the mountain area in
this region and the greater part of the summer ranges and much of
the spring and fall range is, therefore, used under grazing privileges
permitted by the Forest Service.
There are large ranching concerns throughout this region, but the
moderate-sized combined crop-farming and grazing ranches predomi-
nate. While there are innumerable variations, the following ex-
amples indicate size and type of ranches, the combinations of crop
and grazing agriculture, and the means of land tenure of many
ranching outfits in this general region.
Thirteen cattle ranches in Utah (103], with about 244 head each,
used an average of 5,799 acres of land distributed as follows :
Acres
Owned crop land (4 percent) 210
Owned grazing land (21 percent) 1,232
Leased grazing land (5 percent) 298
National-forest range (33 percent) 1,925
Public domain (37 percent) 2,134
390 THE WESTERN KANGE
An average of two typical sheep ranches in Idaho amounts to
4,820 acres of owned and leased land exclusive of use of national-
forest and public-domain lands — 1,030 acres of owned crop land
farmed, and 2,415 acres of owned and 1,375 acres of leased range
land grazed. During the summer national-forest range was used,
public domain was grazed for about 3 months in early spring and
late fall, and supplemental crop feeds were used during most of
the winter. The average number of sheep grazed was 9,100 head,
which is somewhat larger than the average for this broad region
as a whole.
CALIFORNIA REGION
The bulk of the grazing lands in California and the crop farm-
ing which is closely integrated with use of the range lie within the
great valley of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, which
stretches through the interior of the State for a distance of over
500 miles.
The climate of this valley is unique in that the growing period
occurs during the late fall and winter and spring. The range forage
in the valley and along the lower slopes of the mountains is com-
posed mostly of annuals which produce an abundance of excellent
forage during the growing season but dry up and are of greatly
reduced value in summer.
Since the mountain summer ranges furnish only a little over 10
percent of the range feed, livestock are largely dependent during the
summer on crop land stubble and irrigated and subirrigated pas-
tures.
Seasonal use revolves largely around croplands. Cattle for the
most part use annual grass ranges during late fall, winter, and
spring, and are summered on irrigated and other farm pasturage,
subirrigated bottomlands, and on the national-forest mountain
ranges. In the early fall they use largely grain stubble fields.
Sheep are grazed usually on annual grass pasture in late fall,
winter, and spring, move to the national forests, or irrigated or
subirrigated pasture and other croplands in summer, and use grain-
stubble fields and irrigated pasture in the early fall.
California produces a tremendous variety of crops which provide
large quantities of supplemental and fattening feeds. One hun-
dred thousand tons of cottonseed cake, 350,000 tons of beet pulp,
and large amounts of linseed meal and rice bran are produced an-
nually. For the important Los Angeles market, large numbers of
cattle and lambs are fed annually. Many lambs are fed by feeding
companies with large plants and are sent to market as fast as con-
ditioned during the season. California is one of the few States
which produce early spring lambs.
The coast ranges, where there are some perennial grasses, are
used to some extent yearlong, although winter feeding of supple-
mental crop land forage is also practiced.
Tenure of crop and range lands by livestock operations varies
greatly with different concerns. Figures for two widely different
counties show that 17 percent of the cattlemen and 28 percent of
the sheepmen in Stanislaus County and 24 percent of the cattlemen
and 52 percent of the sheepmen in Kings County own no real estate.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 391
The 17 percent of cattlemen graze 29 percent of the cattle, and the
28 percent of sheepmen graze 51 percent of the sheep in Stanislaus
County. In Kings County the cattlemen who own no real estate
graze 56 percent of the cattle, and the sheepmen 82 percent of the
sheep. There are a total of 69 cattlemen in Stanislaus County and
17 in Kings County. The total number of cattle grazed are 11,409
head and 2,526 head, respectively.
The dense population of California (5,677,000, or 38.8 percent of
the total for the range country) makes meat production of great im-
portance for local food requirements. This State at times draws for
cattle on all the 11 western range States, and Texas, Canada, and
Mexico. There is a lack of suitable range land but an abundance of
cropland products for fattening. Therefore, the closely integrated
use of crop and range lands is of extreme importance in maintain-
ing maximum production of livestock.
These regional characteristics and their influence upon local agri-
culture serve to show how inseparable, throughout the West, the
range and the farm have become. Starting with the independent use
of native forage by the pioneer stock outfits, coming on down
through the period of intense conflicts between the homesteader, the
sheep outfits, and the cowmen, we now find each use so dependent on
the other that the elimination of one would seriously handicap the
whole economic and social order. Only through the closest kind
of coordination can the full potentialities of the land be obtained.
Furthermore, the corollary is obvious, that neither phase of this in-
tegrated agriculture can suffer serious impairment without seriously
affecting the other, and the welfare of a whole region as well.
The wide range of conditions covered by the agricultural pat-
terns only serves to emphasize the need for close correlation. The
Mormon community with small intensively used acreages and small
but essential herds or flocks, the hay from Snake Kiver Valley fed
to sheep and cattle which summer on the public domain or the
national forests, the Easter lambs which are finished on the Salt
River project, the large herds of the Southwest which give purpose
to the irrigation of that region, the beet pulp and other agricultural
byproducts which are used to finish livestock in Montana — these are
just a few examples of the interlocking of western agriculture.
DEPENDENT POPULATION
Since the dawn of civilization the ranging of domestic livestock
on native forage has been an important occupation of mankind.
It has furnished a large part of the food and clothing and the basis
for much of the trade and industry. But integrated crop farming
and grazing is a more stable and permanent form of agriculture
than grazing alone and this industry furnishes a source of occupa-
tion and of economic support to many people in the West today.
The druggist, the lumber dealer, the beauty parlor operator, and the
garage mechanic in a prosperous stock town are as fully dependent
on livestock for a livelihood as is the cowboy or farm hand. Thus
the 14,612,000 people in the range country in large measure depend
on western agriculture for their welfare and prosperity. The degree
of dependence varies greatly with the type of community life but
four general groups stand out.
392 THE WESTERN KANGE
OUTLYING RANCHES
There are many isolated ranches in the range country located at
distances from trading points or post offices, varying from only a
few miles to 100 miles or more. The culture and standards of living
are in general high, but great variations occur, from ranch head-
quarters equipped with radios, electrical appliances, and modern
sanitation to the dirt-floor shack without any modern conveniences.
The dependency of these ranches' upon the use of the range by
livestock varies tremendously from the dry farmer eking out an
existence on a submarginal farm to the large ranch having heavy
capital investments in grazing, subsidiary crop lands, and range
improvements dependent upon a sustained profitable production of
livestock. Others depend partly upon grazing and crop farming
or partly upon other endeavor. "Dude ranching", for example, has
assumed considerable importance over the past 15 years.
COMMUNITIES
Range-land communities vary as widely in character as do the
homes of the individual ranchers. The Spanish settlements along
the Rio Grande since late in the seventeenth century have used the
range continuously. Range lands around such settlements furnish
most of the forage for milch cows, milch goats, and meat animals,
which supply a major portion of the food, particularly protein foods,
of the residents. The Mormon communities of the intermountain
and southwest regions are social entities closely knit by ties of
church. Many settlements, particularly on arable lands along
streams or mountain valleys, and dry-farming areas have their social
center and trading point in a combined post office and general store,
a public school, an amusement hall, a church, and perhaps one or
two additional small business establishments. These little com-
munities, often adequate for the farming and ranching operations
they serve, may well form the basis for a high type of American
living.
Aside from communities which are largely dependent upon crop
farming and livestock, there are many the support of which comes
from a variety of other occupations interwoven into the economic
complex, such as mining, lumbering, tourist trade, and hunting and
fishing. These are of all varieties, from the thrifty modern settle-
ment, with a definite social life and recognized social responsibilities,
to the decadent submarginal farming town, with few or no social
advantages and with no leadership to assume the responsibility of
the community. Both types, and all between these extremes," are
in varying degree dependent upon crop farming and livestock graz-
ing for their permanent existence. Individually the hopes, aspira-
tions, and happiness of many people and collectively their social
and economic security depend upon the degree to which the range
is available as a source of permanent support.
SUPPLY TOWNS
The characteristic type of supply town which serves the range
country may be a distributing point for distances of 100 miles or
AS AX INTEGRATED PAET OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 393
more on each side. Even though the populations are small, the
total business transacted during the* year may be very large com-
paratively. They embrace sizable wholesale and retail houses,
and the ordinary business endeavors. Usually they support one or
more churches and two or three fraternal organizations; good schools
and reasonable opportunities for social diversions are available.
Although dependent upon a variety of trade, traffic, and industry,
ordinarily the range livestock business and other forms of agricul-
ture are among the important sources of their support.
METROPOLITAN BUSINESS CENTERS
Metropolitan business centers include cities such as Denver,
Phoenix, Ogden? Salt Lake City, and others. They are wholesale
receiving and distributing points for all commodities used in the
range livestock industry, and for the products of that industry as
well as other industries represented in the West. They provide
stockyard facilities, livestock and agricultural commission houses,
and in some cases meat-packing and processing plants, saddlery,
harness, and other leather-purchasing and manufacturing concerns.
BONDS BETWEEN WESTERN AGRICULTURE AND THE MIDDLE WEST AND
SOUTH
The extent to which the range livestock industry of the West
contributes to the agricultural undertaking of the Midwest and
South and industries of the East is not generally appreciated. With
regard to the first, the relationship, which is mutually advantageous,
rests principally in the furnishing by the West of feeder steers and
lambs for fattening on Midwest farms. Western ranges are in gen-
eral best adapted to the production of feeder stock. Although finish-
ing on farms has increased throughout the West, the production
of feeders is still greatly in excess of western requirements. Thus
the fattening of range livestock in the Corn Belt offers the best
possibility of marketing for this excess.
There are other advantageous features of middle-western fatten-
ing of range-produced steers and lambs. It offers Corn Belt farmers
an opportunity for bettering their income by converting raw ma-
terials, such as hay, corn, and other grain, into finished products
for human consumption. It also provides the farmer with the
opportunity of turning his slack time into cash and for reducing the
cost of finishing hogs that use feed lots with cattle. This is an
important source of profit from the entire feeding enterprise.
In some instances, particularly during the fall of 1934 and winter
of 1934-35, following the severe drought of the summer, Midwest
winter wheat lands have furnished pasturage for large numbers of
range cattle. Financially harassed farmers received a good income
from this use, and ranchers were able to prevent severe drought
losses and maintain breeding stock in good condition.
Conversely, supplemental winter feeding in the West offers
markets for large quantities of Middle West shelled corn, oats, and
other small grain. The total volume and values involved in such
transactions are very difficult to determine, but they are unquestion-
abl}7 of great interregional importance.
394 THE WESTERN RANGE
The primary relationship between western ranching and the South
is through use in the West of large amounts of cottonseed cake, meal,
and other products for supplemental feeding of western livestock.
To a limited degree the West furnishes foundation breeding stock
upon which is being built a higher type of animal husbandry in the
South.
Eastern manufacturers provide markets and processing plants for
most of the western wools and mohair. Beef and mutton are also
marketed mainly east of the range country.
Clearly, a permanently high level of security for the western live-
stock industry is of real importance to the Midwest, to the South
and East, and to the Nation. That maximum benefits have not been
obtained is a natural result of the industry's haphazard and plan-
less development. Unsuited land-settlement policies, misuse of land,
disregard for sustained production from range and ranch are among
the factors that have given rise to maladjustments which must be
corrected if a satisfactory contribution to the social and economic
welfare of the West and the Nation is to be realized.
EFFECTS OF MALADJUSTED LAND USES AND OF RANGE DEPLETION
DRY FARMING OR RANGE HUSBANDRY
Before pioneer conditions of the Middle West would allow other
forms of land use, sheep and cattle began to convert annual grass
crops into regular market supplies of beef, mutton, wool, and hides.
Then in a brief space of years the tall-grass prairies were trans-
formed to waving wheat and corn fields and a solid pattern of farm
homes was developed. The changes from ranching to crop agri-
culture in the Middle West were swift, decisive, and permanent.
Because of these changes social and economic opportunities multi-
plied. In the tall-grass country this form of agriculture has amply
justified itself, even though immense areas of fine grassland were
plowed up in the transition process.
The contrast is sharp between this earlier and successful settle-
ment effort and the later settlement that occupied the empire of
semiarid range land still farther to the west. By the time the
Middle West was well settled, the whole country was in the grip
of a boom over free land to the west and again cattle were being
pushed back by the plow. No systematic effort was made to clas-
sify the western lands or otherwise to guide settlers to the better
soils or locations. "Let the devil take the hindmost" might have
been the guiding principle of the mushroom type of settlement that
developed in the range country. "Rain follows the plow" was an
oft used argument to answer any who raised questions as to the
adequacy of rainfall.
Major Powell's report of 1878 (107) contained a remarkably clear
analysis of special problems to be met and essential changes in exist-
ing settlement policies needed to meet them. The report pointed out
definitely the limited productivity of the semiarid range lands and
emphasized the fact that crop agriculture would not yield a depend-
able family living in most of this area except under irrigation.
But, as already explained, the vision and almost prophetic insight
into the problem of developing a sound type of western agriculture
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 395
based primarily on range husbandry was ignored. Efforts to trans-
plant a Middle West settlement pattern of 160-acre homesteads on
the semiarid West continued.
As the wave of Western settlement rose higher and higher, the de-
struction of native grassland was everywhere accelerated. Settlers
flocked deeper and deeper into the West where average annual pre-
cipitation dropped from 25 to 20 inches — on into the true range areas
of 18, 15, and even less than 12 inches, where, during the growing
season of frequent drought years, the precipitation often falls below
5 inches. These dry plains were clothed with grasses, "the most
nutritious that livestock ever fed on" (98), but as farm land their
limited productivity has in general proved pitifully inadequate to
support a family permanently from the products of a quarter-section
homestead.
Sometimes a series of two or more abnormally wet years occurred
immediately after the sod was first broken up. The thin but rich
layer of humus that had accumulated through the centuries, coupled
with the high moisture retentive power of virgin soil, yielded bounti-
ful crops under such favorable weather conditions. A period of
rising prices for farm products set in at about the turn of the
century that continued with some irregularity until 1919. These
combined conditions served as a stimulus to more dry farming and
greater range destruction by unwise plowing.
A considerable share of the homesteaders were, however, without
•experience in any form of agriculture, and would have been destined
to failure as farmers under far more favorable conditions. On the
-other hand, the inherent difficulties of farming homesteads of this
type were practically unsurmountable, even by those with ability
and experience. "The Government bets title to 160 acres against
the homesteader's filing fee that he will starve out before proving
up, and the dry farmer usually loses" — is the way the land settle-
ment policies have been aptly epitomized. As rainfall failed and
prices fluctuated, more and more of these unwisely created dry-farm
homesteads were abandoned. Fading hopes of those who had already
invested years of labor and all their capital in a small dry farm
were revived temporarily when the Government guaranteed $2.20
per bushel for war-time wheat. More sod was broken. But again
drought, hot winds, hailstorms, grasshopper scourges, and other
calamities occurred with discouraging frequency. The income from
one good crop was quickly absorbed by living expenses and in build-
ings, fences, etc., necessary for occupancy of the new land. By the
time the next good crop occurred a major portion was required to
satisfy creditors, leaving little or no surplus for the inevitable lean
years. Isolation, hardships, and want were the common portion of
dry-farming families.
Fortune or good judgment enabled many to acquire units of
adequate size and to set up a balanced form of agriculture keyed
to western conditions, but in competition with established range
outfits. Others continued straight dry farming. Slowly at first
but at an increasing rate, desertion of dry farms took place even
before the World War. Restricted grain exports, curtailed pur-
chasing power, and deflated prices, coupled with an unusually severe
drought in 1919, stepped up the rate of desertion to the proportions
396 THE WESTERN RANGE
of an exodus from many dry-farm counties. Tens of thousands of
farmers gave up in despair. Covered wagons cargoed with the
meager family household goods and trailed by a gaunt milk cow
were on the road — somewhere. The number of farms in Montana
declined more than 10,000 in a decade — a reduction of about 18
percent of the 1920 total. Four counties in the Big Bend dry-farm-
ing section of Washington lost 18 to 35 percent of their 1910 popula-
tion by the time the 1930 census was taken. Parts of Colorado, the
western portion of the Dakotas, Idaho, Oregon, and certain portions
of other States had similar losses. Deserted homesteads, vacant
schools, weed-grown cemeteries now bear mute testimony to the
unwisdom of small homesteads on semiarid range lands. Such lands
are adapted to permanent range use in units of considerable size with
the support of some crop feeds, but not to independent dry farming.
SUB MARGINAL CROPPING INCREASES FEED AND CROP LOANS
Many unfortunate victims of the dry-farming boom still refuse
to accept the inevitable or have been unable for one reason or another
to join the thousands who deserted their homes. Thus the Federal
Government and certain States have been forced, in a humanitarian
effort to relieve acute distress, into the anomalous position of sub-
sidizing these farmers to continue on farms that should be returned
to range use.
More than 2,500,000 emergency crop and feed loans, aggregating
slightly more than $287,000,000 have been made by the Federal
Government in the 48 States since 1921 in an effort to relieve acute
distress arising from numerous agricultural emergencies. The No-
vember 1935 Report of the Farm Credit Administration shows that
37.8 percent of the total was then outstanding and unpaid. This
compares to 56.1 percent of outstanding and unpaid loans made in
the 11 Western States. The higher percent of unpaid loans in the
West is a reflection of the greater susceptibility of this region to such
emergencies and to the maladjustments that have developed. Sub-
marginal dry farming on land best suited for range use has been an
important factor in the number and size of western loans and in
delaying repayments.
SUBMARGINAL FARMING AGGRAVATES CROP-SURPLUS PROBLEMS
Not only did submarginal dry-farming attempts victimize the
homesteaders and the range-livestock producers, but they have
added greatly to the wheat-surplus problem. Immense quantities of
wheat, produced from such lands during years of optimum weather
conditions, competed with that grown on permanent crop land. The
possibility of "making a killing" with an occasional bumper crop
is a real lure to the operator even though the risk is high.
One $2,000,000 corporation ripped up 100,000 acres of Montana
grassland between 1918 and 1923 (2). This gigantic sod-breaking
effort took place on Indian lands leased from the Government at an
exceptionally low rental. Hundreds of plow bottoms, scores of wheat
drills, and batteries of threshing machines were operated by im-
mense corporation tractors in a grandiose effort to convert semiarid
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 397
rangeland to profitable wheatfields. Operations for the first 4 years
resulted in a net deficit. Eastern bankers retired with the loss of a
substantial portion of their loans. Some profits accrued to the re-
organized corporation for a brief period, but crops were so poor
during the 1929 to 1934 period that more than $80,000 in rental fees
was due at one time and the net deficit amounted to $600,000 during
these 6 years. Only 20,000 of the 100,000 acres broken up are now
being cropped. Through this abortive venture in wheat growing
the Northwest has lost 80,000 acres of native grassland to Russian-
thistle and cheatgrass. Production at a net loss tends to depress
permanent cropland elsewhere into the submarginal class and is detri-
mental to the national economy.
In 1934-35, in an effort to remove the threat to overproduction, 40
million acres of submarginal cropland on 3 million farms was taken
temporarily out of production (175) pending more permanent ad-
justments. Part of this is located in the West, where it is now esti-
mated that a minimum of 15 million acres which has been cultivated
should be permanently diverted from crop farming to pasturage or
other forms of use. This area includes 7.2 million acres within
"Problem 1" areas of the Resettlement Administration and at least 8
million acres additional in scattered tracts.
PLOWED RANGE LANDS REQUIRE REHABILITATION
Submarginal dry farming on land which nature intended for
grass had reached its maximum and in many places had begun its
decline by about 1920. Biological, social, and economic problems
of great complexity are involved in restoring these abondoned dry-
farm lands to permanent forms of use.
Nature has begun the process, but her methods of regrassing mil-
lions of acres of range land devastated by the plow and erosive proc-
esses are painfully slow. A survey to determine the natural rate
of regrassing plowed lands of central Montana was conducted by
Prof. E. W. Nelson of the University of Montana. He found that
land abandoned for 11 to 15 years had a grazing capacity only 46
percent, and for 16 years and more only 57 percent as high as that
on nearby native ranges themselves badly depleted by overgrazing.
After careful investigations in eastern Colorado, Shantz (125) con-
cluded that 20 to 50 years would be required for the short-grass type
of grassland to reestablish itself after being plowed and abandoned.
He further estimated that it might take a century for some types
to reestablish the original cover where soil conditions were greatly
disturbed by wind erosion.
About 78 million acres of native sod in the prairies and plains
of the West were diverted to crop uses between 1900 and 1929. Not
all of this has proved to be submarginal, as is the previously men-
tioned 15 million acres which should revert to public ownership.
The attrition of the grassland by the plow still continues to some
extent. It is probable that at least 20 million acres of plowed land
in the West now require restoration to grass before they can con-
tribute fully to the support of the region. Range rehabilitation by
its very magnitude has thus become a national problem.
398
THE WESTERN RANGE
OTHER MALADJUSTMENTS
The attempts at submarginal dry farming, although an unfortu-
nate and indeed, disastrous land-use practice, is not the only form
of maladjustment that has contributed to the present acute agricul-
tural situation in the West. An equally unfortunate practice, al-
ready described as a phase of land ownership, is the parcelling out
of land in units of inadequate size. These were doomed to failure
even on some of the better soils, if we are to judge by the almost
universal trend, as shown in table 64 and figure 80, toward much
larger units. Although the total area in all farm-ranch units has
nearly doubled since 1910, the acreage in the 100-174 acre class has
70
60
I50
1
40
g 30
5 20
I
10
0
SMALL RANCH UNITS
(100 - 174 ACRES )
LARGE RANCH UNITS
( 1000 -i- ACRES )
I
P771
1
P
^X
P
P
V/
y/
I
I
I
I
I
^P
W
Y/s
I
• 1 ^
1
I
i
1
9IC
1920 1925 1930
1910 1920 1925 1930
FIGURE 80. — The 20-year downward trend in the percent of total western farm-ranch
acreage in small units is more than offset by the upward trend in units of 1,000 acres
or more.
fallen off by more than 40 percent, and the number in this class has
decreased by more than 37 percent; while in the same period units
of 1,000 acres and more have more than doubled in number and
nearly trebled in total area. This is strong additional evidence that
small homestead units are not adapted to stability of agricultural
development in the West and accounts in part for the heavy turnover
in the smallest-size permit class of the national forests, as discussed
in another part of this report.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
399
TABLE 64. — Trends in number and acreage of small and large farm-rancJi units
in 11 Western States *
[TOTALS FOR ALL SIZE UNITS]
Year
Unit
s
Ares
\
1900
Numbers
242, 908
Percent
100
Acres
93 796 860
Percent
100
1910
373, 337
100
110, 862, 209
100
1920
478, 273
100
173, 489, 931
100
1925
498, 979
100
185, 947, 486
100
1930
503, 047
100
217, 975, 170
100
UNITS OF 100-174 ACRES
1900...
69, 463
28.60
10, 576, 452
11.28
1910
102, 691
27.51
15, 522, 057
14.00
1920
78, 765
16.47
11, 445, 682
6.60
1925
70, 715
14.17
10, 138, 308
5.45
1930
64 659
12 85
9, 185, 047
4 22
UNITS OF 1,000 ACRES AND OVER
1900
11, 573
4.76
54, 781, 754
58.40-
1910
14 500
3 88
53, 574 882
48 33
1920
25, 303
5.29
89, 546, 295
51.61
1925
27 094
5 43
108,390 652
58 29
1930
37, 309
7.42
142, 960, 243
65.74
UNITS OF 5,000 ACRES AND OVER »
1920
3 053
0 64
48 474 057
27 94
1925
3,669
.74
65, 421, 568
35.18
1930
4 982
99
82 445 690
37 92
1 Data from the Bureau of the Census.
2 Prior to 1920 there was no separate classification for units of 5,000 acres and over.
A recent study by the Forest Service discloses that 19,528 farm
units comprising 2,224,037 acres located inside or adjacent to na-
tional forests had been abandoned prior to June 1934. These units
averaged considerably less than 160 acres and many of them were
located on rocky soil, steep slopes, or at high elevations where cli-
matic conditions preclude successful crop agriculture. They were
not only submarginal but many of them were so located as to inter-
fere with lumbering, recreation, grazing, and other land uses on
larger adjacent areas.
Although irrigation has been one of the substantial stabilizing
factors in western agriculture its effects have not always been favor-
able. Thousands of acres of land once of the highest productivity
have been waterlogged by irrigation developments. The alkali salts
which have accumulated not only make the problem of reclamation
by drainage extremely difficult, 'but also seriously impair possible
future value of this land for range use.
The 640-acre stock-raising homesteads, previously described, have
been another link in a long series of maladjustments that have con-
tinually interfered with the development of a balanced type of agri-
culture. Practically all of the land entered or patented under this
law was already in use by established livestock outfits. The final
results were to further intensify over settlement, to increase do-
400 THE WESTERN RANGE
structive competition for range resources, and to raise operating ex-
penses to former users without commensurate benefit to those who
attempted to establish farm homes based on the products of a
640-acre homestead.
Maladjustment through improper use of land is well illustrated
by the complex situation which has developed in an important graz-
ing locality in El Dorado County, Calif., as revealed by a recent
economic survey (181). The settlement pattern and land utilization
practices that grew up during the gold-rush days and succeeding
boom periods no longer meet the changed economic and social needs.
One evidence of the change is the decline in the population itself,
which has been accompanied by serious difficulties in maintaining
local school and road facilities and reasonable standards of rural
living. The present maladjustment has resulted partly from or is
reflected by such factors as (1) a decrease in grazing values through
encroachment of brush and other inferior plants; (2) a one-third
reduction in tilled agricultural lands between 1863 and 1930; and
(3) a dwindling acreage of virgin timber along with an increase
in neglected cut-over land. Overgrazing, fire, and destructive log-
ging have been active forces in this change.
EFFECTS OF RANGE DEPLETION ON INTEGRATED WESTERN AGRICULTURE
CROPS AFFECTED BY RANGE DEPLETION
One excellent example of the bad effects of depleted ranges on
crop production is the enormous periodic losses caused by beet leaf-
hoppers to the sugar beet, tomato, and bean industries of the West.
Surveys by the Bureau of Plant Industry and the Bureau of En-
tomology and Plant Quarantine have determined that Russian-
thistle, mustard, and a few other weeds are the favored plants on
which the beet leafhoppers survive between beet harvest and the
next crop. Large areas of overgrazed range and abandoned farm
lands on which these host plants predominate were found adjacent
to important irrigated beet-, tomato-, and bean-growing areas in
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and California. It
was estimated that the beet leafhoppers reduced the beet crop in
1934 in six south Idaho counties to less than 10 percent of the 1933
crop. Sugar factories in at least two of the nearby cities failed to
open in the fall of 1934, with a loss of employment of about 500
men and a loss to the growers exceeding $1,500,000.
OVERCOMPETITION INFLATES LAND VALUES AND PRODUCTION COSTS
Unfortunately, the number of livestock owned rather than the sus-
tained grazing capacity of available ranges has been the main cri-
terion of the wealth of livestock outfits. The lack of a simple and
dependable measuring stick whereby stockmen or bankers might
determine the grazing capacity has resulted in a tendency to over-
estimate, and in a general failure to recognize the limits of per-acre
productivity. After the range was already stocked to the point
where there remained no surplus of forage, new ranches wedged in.
Efforts to increase size of herds continued with little regard for
. supply or cost of feed. As a result, droughts, grasshoppers, and
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 401
other emergencies brought acute and frequent feed shortages. In
an effort to make up the growing deficiency of range feed for what
was really excess numbers of livestock, additional land was brought
under cultivation and irrigation expanded, often at unprofitable cost
per acre. The resultant overcompetition for both range and crop
land led to inflated prices which in turn encouraged heavier stock-
ing and again more land purchase in a vicious circle that often re-
sulted in acute economic distress for the operator and extreme abuse
of the range.
That stockmen realize the burden of private ownership and have
tried by leasing to escape from it, was shown in the previous discus-
sion of land tenure. The extent of the extra costs is indicated by a
survey made by the Forest Service in the 11 western range States
from 1922 to 1924. Data were collected on 183 tracts of land com-
prising more than 625,000 acres owned by livestock producers near
the various national forests. Based on taxes and interest on the
land investment, the cost of pasturage to the owners of these lands
averages $1.02 per animal-month for cattle, and 17 cents for sheep.
On 1,675 tracts of grazing land aggregating more than 16 million
acres leased from others by stockmen in this same region, the cost
per animal-month averaged only 18 cents per month for cattle and
6.5 cents for sheep. The cost of pasturage was thus almost three-
fold for sheep and more than fivefold for cattle to the man who
owned his range pasture as compared to the man who leased from
others. In other words, range forage on the average cost the man
who owned the land $12.24 for 12 months' pasturage for cattle as
against' $2.16 for the man who leased from others. The cost of
ownership which the stockmen escapes is, however, borne by the
lessor, and thus the loss in community income is in nowise reduced
through the cheaper operating cost on leased land. Many fore-
closures and bankruptcies might have been avoided during deflation
periods in 1921 and again in 1934 had the danger of inflated land
prices been more carefully considered.
The owner of land has the advantage of assured use, but such a
high differential is an exorbitant price to pay for secure tenure,
desirable though it is. He is under a tremendous handicap in com-
petition with the producer who operates on cheaper feed. However,
short-term competitive leases are very troublesome because a com-
petitor may bid up the price to an unreasonable figure and actually
take over the lease at a critical time. Thus the operator walks a
tightrope, striving for stability on one hand and low costs on the
other.
EXPENSIVE SUPPLEMENTAL FEED REPLACES CHEAP BANGE FOBAGE
As the grazing capacity of native ranges declined from both
overgrazing and plowing, efforts to maintain or increase numbers
of livestock on both farms and ranches have continued without
counting the cost of the increased proportion of harvested food re-
quired. The livestock industry of the West must in large measure
rely on cheap range forage to offset the distinct disadvantage of high
cost of transportation to market. Yet, there has been a gradual
change from almost complete reliance on the range forage to the use
64946—36 27
402 THE WESTERN RANGE
of immense quantities of hay and other harvested crops, including
cottonseed cake and other special products shipped in.
Irrigation and dry-farm forage production on many millions of
acres have been essential to provide security against severe winters
or drought years. In no other way was it possible to build up an
integrated type of agriculture with range husbandry occupying its
proper place in the scheme. However, it now seems probable that
the increasing use of supplemental feed has progressed beyond the
point that yields best profits, as is fully brought out in the discus-
sion of excessive stocking earlier in this report. Harvested crops,
concentrates, and irrigated pasture provided 43 percent of the total
feed requirements of livestock for 11 western range States in 1935.
Saunderson 42 reports a long-time trend toward shortening the period
on range forage and lengthening of the wintering period in Mon-
tana and that better control and use of range land would allow
the shortening of the feeding period by a month or approximately
one-third. Similar increases in the use of winter feed have taken
place in most sections of the range country, as narrated of conditions
in Colorado (26).
In the early days * * * cattle came through the winters in better shape
on bunchgrass with little or no hay than they do at the present time when
1% to 2 tons of hay are fed per cow. * * * Cattlemen in early days
were able to round up and ship their beef in July, whereas now no beef can
be gathered and shipped till late fall with the exceptions of small bunches that
can be kept in sepcial pastures.
The extent to which this situation applies varies by States and
by operators. The southern portion of the range country has a
shorter feeding period, but here, also, there is the tendency to sub-
stitute great quantities of cottonseed cake and other expensive feeds
for cheap range forage. Numerous studies of the cost of production
agree in general with the conclusion reached in Wyoming (170) to
the effect that livestock profits are due to gains made from grazing
the ranges and that those operations having the lightest supple-
mental feed requirements have the greatest opportunities for profits.
Thus, failure to adjust operations to reduced grazing capacity of
range lands reacts on profits with smashing effect when livestock
prices are low.
Safety requires that a substantial supply of supplemental feed
be kept on hand even though the cost may be greater than range
forage. There are very definite limitations, however, to the use of
such expensive feeds for normal range operations. Entirely differ-
ent considerations apply where it is possible to obtain a price ad-
vantage through the use of western-grown feeds in fattening opera-
tions, as will be discussed later.
Infectious abortion spreads less readily among cattle on the range
than in herds that are crowded together on feeding grounds (67).
This is one good reason for keeping range cattle on feed lots no
longer than is absolutely necessary. Experienced stockmen com-
monly believe that livestock will winter in stronger and more
healthy condition as a result of using range forage to the maximum
than by the use of a high proportion of supplemental feed.
42 See footnote 24, p. 208.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 403
DEPLETION OF KEY AKEAS
Pioneer stockmen of the West had the opportunity to use advan-
tageously located key areas essential to best use of adjacent range
land. These tracts provided feed, water, and shelter for calving or
lambing at low cost or for fattening animals for market without
other feed. They served as holding grounds, horse pastures, con-
necting links between summer and winter ranges, driveways, and
otherwise as indispensable aids to economical operations. Dry
farming claimed many of these, but questionable range practices
are responsible for the depleted condition of many more such key
areas. Abuse of the lieu selection laws and subsidized homesteading
by employees have allowed virtual monopoly of all available water
for miles', which resulted in the range abuses and range wars of
varying degrees as narrated in the history of the range. Very
careful management on many of these abused areas and in some
cases artificial reseeding will be necessary to restore a forage cover.
UNBALANCED SEASONAL USE OF RANGE FORAGE
Spring and fall ranges perform a particular function in the
economical production of range livestock. The end of the winter
season is a critical time; livestock become dissatisfied with hay
or other dry feed as soon as early spring growth appears. The
heaviest death losses of the year may occur after grasses first appear
but before they are sufficiently abundant to fully maintain livestock.
Early settlement took place to a very great extent on areas espe-
cially adapted to spring-fall range use. As depletion extended
progressively farther from the ranch headquarters, the more
expensive harvested feeds had to be used earlier in the fall and later
in the spring. Gradually the overgrazing extended to the summer
ranges at a greater distance. In many places improper use and
depletion of spring and fall ranges has progressed to the point that
livestock must be held on alfalfa and hay meadows and other high-
value crop land so late that these crops have been damaged severely.
Depletion of the spring-fall ranges before summer ranges are ready
for use has been the cause for one of the most difficult problems in
grazing administration on national forests, because of the insistent
pressure for grazing these public ranges prematurely.
Improper use of range forage has destroyed much of the value
of many spendid ranches that were once highly productive enter-
prises. 'The Grasshopper Ranch of about 15,000 acres located in
Lassen County, Calif., is one of many such examples. This ranch
was purchased about 1900 and with nearby public-domain range it
supported about 4,000 cattle and horses for a considerable period of
years. During favorable years it produced upward of 3.500 tons
of hay and was then one of the most valuable stock ranches in
northern California. At one time the owner refused an offer of
$200,000 for it.
Overgrazing coupled with improper seasonal use of the surround-
ing public domain gradually unbalanced this ranch as a produc-
tive unit. It was sold under foreclosure in 1923 and has changed
hands several times since at greatly reduced prices. Hay produc-
tion is now only a small fraction of the former quantity. Even by
404 THE WESTERN RANGE
grazing the former hay lands it is only possible to obtain feed for
about one-third of the animals during the summer that were formerly
maintained yearlong on the ranch and the range land tributary to it.
Other ranch properties throughout the West have suffered a some-
what similar fate.
Immediate reduction in numbers of livestock sufficiently to restore
depleted spring-fall ranges is a grim alternative. This may be
avoided by increased use of supplemental feeds, but this course
endangers the chances for profitable operations. A third course,
ultimately suicidal to the industry, is to relieve the overgrazed spring-
fall ranges by still heavier use of ranges needed at other seasons,
most of which are already overgrazed. All three courses may serve
as temporary adjustments but in the end the situation demands
drastic reduction in stocking to restore a balance between livestock
numbers and range and crop feeds.
DEPLETION AFFECTS MARKETABILITY OF LIVESTOCK
As previously stated the western livestock industry is absolutely
dependent upon its one natural advantage over other regions, the
availability of cheap range forage to overcome the handicap of ex-
tremely high freight rates. Parr et al. (99) give one example of
a shipment of two cars of cattle from Arizona to Kansas City that
netted only $4.70 to the owner after freight was paid. Labor, range
improvement, and other charges are high and great extremes of
weather cause relatively high losses under the best management
possible. Range depletion coupled with speculative prices for range
lands, high taxes, and other fixed charges have reached a point where
the natural advantage of cheap range forage is being destroyed. The
following comparison (134) is an apt illustration of this situation:
During the seasons of 1887, '88, and '89, 3-year-old steers were sold on the
Denver market for Christmas beef weighing 1,250 and 1,500 pounds, without
feed other than grass and native hay. * * * Ten years later steers from the
same quality of stock, handled in the same way, on the prairie pastures were
sold as feeders, but they weighed only around 1,000 pounds. Under the con-
trolled open range system our heritage was soon wasted and almost destroyed.
Range forage in ample quantities has demonstrated its ability to
produce a considerable proportion of grass-fat lambs and steers,
classed as "killers" at the markets. This is the class that ordinarily
receives the best competition between packers and yields greatest
profits to the range producer. Based on a recent 6-year average of
Chicago prices during September to November, inclusive, the price
per cut for Common steers was $5.17, for Medium $6.86, for
Good $8.57, and for Choice $9.84, in the 900- to 1,100-pound group.
Most western range steers, with ample feed, have the breeding and
quality to qualify for the Medium and many for the Good grade,
but when shipped from overgrazed ranges they fail to reach the
weight or grade to which they are otherwise qualified. An increase
in weight from 900 to 1,000 pounds or more and in grade from Me-
dium to Good would increase the average price from $61.74 to $85.70.
The $23.96 difference represents the premium on ample range forage
per animal at a cost of but a fraction of this amount.
Slightly thinner livestock, called "two-way animals", are suitable
for immediate slaughter but are also in demand by feeders who
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 405
wish partly fat animals that may be finished for higher prices during
a short feeding period. The 'premium to be had by "finishing"
this type should more often go to the hay and grain farmer of the
West. Even this class generally commands better competition and
higher prices than those that are unsuited for slaughter except as
"canners" and "cutters" at a heavy price discount. Discarded dairy
animals furnish a constant supply of the latter class of cattle. Al-
though it requires more forage to produce the maximum percentage
of "finished" and "two-way animals" than it does for poorer condi-
tioned stock, the former may yield far better profits than the larger
number of their animals produced from a skimpy allowance of feed.
BENEFITS OF IMPKOVED BREEDING NULLIFIED
Range users of the West have for a long period of years followed
a consistent practice of herd improvement. No other part of the
country uses a higher proportion of purebred sires or has culled out
low-grade cows and ewes more consistently to improve and stand-
ardize herds. The benefits of this herd improvement work have
been nullified to a very great degree by the fact that numbers have
been too great to develop the potential possibilities with the limited
feed resources used. The New Mexico Agricultural College in a
recent unpublished report states that cows on a rehabilitated range
area develop to weigh about 900 pounds and calves at 9 months to
about 380 pounds. On adjacent overgrazed ranges average cow
weight is about 700 pounds and calves about 330 pounds average.
During a 3-year experimental period, high-grade Hereford calves
from overgrazed ranges in Montana averaged at weaning time 48
pounds or nearly 15 percent lighter than those of similar age and
breeding that had a more liberal allowance of range forage. The
cows from overgrazed ranges in this same experiment — depending
on the time of year — averaged 40 to 90 pounds lighter than those
with a more ample supply of range (76).
The relationship between ample feed and good breeding is summed
up by Hart and associates (69) in California in the following man-
ner: "Without proper feed supply, our most highly bred animals
must revert to scrubs or fail in the struggle for existence." This
supports similar conclusions reached in South Africa and in
England.
LOWERED CALF AND LAMB CBOPS AND INCREASED LOSSES
Range depletion has proceeded so rapidly that heavy livestock
losses and low calf and lamb crops continue as major handicaps
to profitable production. Thus the tremendous expenditures which
have been made to provide greater security of operations have been
but partially effective.
In a 5-year study of 84 sheep ranches in Montana, Saunderson
(121) found a variation from 1 to 15 percent in the death loss,
from 50 to 105 percent in the number of lambs matured, and from
55 to 86 pounds in the weight of lambs at marketing time. The
condition of the ranges used and the type of management were
major factors in these variable results. Walker and Lantow (174)
406
THE WESTERN RANGE
report a loss of 15 percent of the cattle in a study of 112 New
Mexico ranches, 78 percent of this loss being due to starvation
directly correlated with poor range conditions during a dry season.
Annual death losses on the Jornada Experimental Range for the
period 1915 to 1933 are reported by the Forest Service to be 1.7
percent as compared with 9.63 percent on nearby New Mexico ranges.
Corresponding calf -crop percents were 70.5 and 45, respectively (figs.
81 and 82). The direct relation between calf crop and range feed is
shown also by the Montana range experiment already mentioned. In
20 40 60
CALF CROP (PERCENT)
80
FIGURE 81. — On comparable New Mexico ranges, calf crops during drought were about
one-third smaller on depleted range than on nearby managed range.
Managed
Range-
Unmanaged
Range
>ed £HH
2468
STARVATION LOSSES (PERCENT)
10
FIQU..E 82. — On the same ranges as in figure 81, starvation losses durinj
nearly six times as large on depleted range.
drought were
this experiment cows on overgrazed range produced a 70-percent calf
crop during a 3-year period, while those of similar age and breeding
in adjacent range pastures that were conservatively grazed produced
an 81.7 percent calf crop at a lower net cost of feed per pound of calf
weight. This tends to bear out the conclusion reached for Wyoming
ranges (170) , that calf crops can be brought up to 80 percent before
the point of diminishing returns is reached. There can be little
doubt that reduced breeding efficiency and excessive losses are caused
by depleted ranges and poor management.
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 407
LOST SOIL FERTILITY AND INCREASING MINERAL DEFICIENCIES
Permanent agricultural use of most soils requires a systematic
return of fertilizing elements that are removed yearly, but this
practice has not been followed or considered practicable for range
lands. Trainloads of livestock move annually to the feed lots of
the Middle West and help maintain fertility there to the net loss
of western ranges. There is growing evidence of phosphorus or
other mineral deficiencies on numerous widely separated western
ranges that tend to curtail profits, through impaired health and
breeding efficiency of range animals (97, 123, 182). Range deple-
tion from this source may not yet be widespread or serious, but
the constant drain must hereafter be considered in western agri-
cultural practices. Leaving a substantial portion of the annual
forage growth to rebuild humus and preserve mineral constituents
on the range land, is one way to reduce the present excessive drain
on soil fertility.
The need for maintaining the soil fertility of cropped land by the
use of manures from feeding hay, certain grain, and other feeds may
warrant a far greater development of western fattening operations.
This may give a profitable outlet for feed reserves which, for safety
of the breeding herd, must be on hand through critical periods, but
which may be used for fattening of some animals after the emer-
gency period has passed. There is much to be gained by such a
development in maintaining soil fertility on western range and crop
lands and as a means to a more orderly marketing practice.
CHRONIC RANGE EMERGENCIES AND FORCED SALES
Year after year range feed supplies are so low by late summer or
early fall that the producer must ship his livestock with little ref-
erence to market conditions or the condition of the animals. Holding
of market animals so greatly endangers the successful maintenance
of the breeding herd that even under usual conditions the trans-
action too often amounts to a forced sale. Drought, grasshopper
infestation, financial deflation, etc., have occurred with such disturb-
ing frequency that range husbandry has gained the reputation of
being in a state of "chronic emergency." Scarcely a year has passed
since the great "die-off" of 1886-87 that some part of the range
country has not experienced some such emergency. The most far-
reaching of these catastrophes occurred as a result of the 1934
drought. Resources of the Federal Treasury were called upon to
finance the purchase of drought-stricken livestock from 904 counties
in 16 of the 17 western States covered in this report, as well as in
several eastern States. Table 65, from a preliminary report by the
Emergency Drought Relief Administration of May 31, 1935, does not
include a minor part of the late purchases. It includes, however,
all purchases made in the six Plains States which are but partially
within the scope of this report.
408
THE WESTERN RANGE
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AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 409
Generally speaking, the $2 flat rate per head paid for sheep was
not materially below normal prices, considering the advanced age
and poor condition of those purchased. This price for old ewes did
not represent a serious loss to the sheep producers, although they
lost heavily in other ways as a result of the drought.
The low prices paid for cattle were gladly accepted by the pro-
ducers with full knowledge that they represented but a fraction
of normal values, because it was realized that prices would have
dropped to much lower levels and probably to zero for certain classes
in the absence of Government purchases. Producers thus suffered
only a part of the losses that otherwise would have occurred.
If the average price of $13.40 per head for these drought-stricken
cattle is assumed to be two-thirds of the true normal value, then
the loss to the producers amounted to $6.70 per head or more than
$48,000,000. Even this staggering total makes little allowance for
the thousands of purebred cows, neifers, and bulls that were sacri-
ficed at $20 or less per head along with the scrubs. It makes no
allowance for loss of ranch income that must remain below normal
for many years, nothing for reduced tax receipts, and nothing for
the losses suffered by the Government and hence by the tax-paying
public in completing the purchase program.
A substantial part of these losses might have been avoided had
the ranges been stocked on a proper, conservative basis and had
there been the type of integration between the ranges and farms
that would have assured maximum amounts of supplemental feeds
for just such emergencies. An occasional ranch located in the heart
of drought-stricken areas, which had followed a conservative graz-
ing policy and that had accumulated supplemental feed reserves,
weathered the drought without major sacrifices and marketed nearly
normal numbers of livestock during 1935 at prices far above those
paid in 1934.
Enormous as this tragedy was, there was about it a certain in-
evitability. Depleted and punished ranges spell economic distress.
Overgrazing the range eventually exacts a heavy penalty. Because
the 1934 drought came during a general depression the effects were
especially severe.
One compensating item may be recorded as the result of the dis-
astrous drought. In certain small sections 80 percent or more of
the livestock were removed from the long-suffering overgrazed
ranges. Nature may have the opportunity to rebuild the range
where reductions were so heavy. In other cases, where the drought
reductions were not sufficient to offset the excess stocking, depletion
still continues.
Keports are already current that a more favorable growing season
in 1935 canceled all traces of the drought and of the half century
of overstocking that preceded it. Such reports are dangerous. Se-
verely depleted ranges cannot be restored in one season, highly
favorable though it may be. Sample-plot data are presented in the
preceding chapter of this report showing that forage cover is far
better on protected areas than across the fence where heavy grazing
has been the rule. According to records at the Hays, Kans., Ex-
perimental Station (122) drought reduced the density of grama and
buffalo grasses 44.4 to 74.8 percent, depending on the extent grazed.
410
THE WESTERN KANGE
The theory of immediate recovery from the effects of drought is
disproved by the fact that, after a favorable spring season in 1935,
total density of all vegetation on two range areas at Miles City was
67 and 73 percent less than in 1933, based on detailed plot maps.
It will be unfortunate indeed if stockmen and credit agencies
fail to grasp this opportunity to build a sound foundation for a
stable agriculture by more conservative range stocking, supported
by commensurate supplies of home-grown supplemental feed.
DECLINE OF POPULATION AND COMMUNITIES
Definite figures are not available to show the relative decline of
business activity in towns and communities within the areas where
range depletion and unbalanced agriculture exist. It is clear that
a serious decline in purchasing power is the cause for a high pro-
portion of vacant stores, garages, banks, and other business estab-
lishments in many western communities. The remaining business
men in such communities will bear witness to the reduced trade
opportunities.
A decline of population is one reliable index from which the
economic welfare of the community may be judged. The popula-
tion of most western counties continues to increase but in many
others heavy population losses have been recorded as a result of
misdirected agricultural endeavors. Fifteen counties chosen from
such areas in 6 States (table 66) lost nearly 25,000 people, or about
21 percent of the total, during 10 years prior to 1930. These losses
range from 4.4 to over 40 percent and illustrate somewhat the extent
of the maladjustments in western agriculture. The population of
Bluff, Utah, has declined approximately 90 percent since 1900 as a
result of range depletion and erosion. Numerous other small once-
thriving villages have had a similar fate.
TABLE 66. — Population decrease in selecte'd counties of dry-land range regions 1
State and county
Population
Decrease
1920
1930
Washington:
Douglas.. .
Number
9,392
7,771
15, 141
5,617
3,826
3,211
12, 194
12, 030
5,368
5,619
14, 061
5,129
4,694
1,886
10, 380
Number
7,561
5,666
11,876
4,941
2,978
2,291
11,242
7,242
4,252
3,751
9,611
4,861
4,103
1,122
9,924
Percent
19.5
27.1
21.6
12.0
22.2
28.7
7.8
39.8
20.8
33.2
31.6
5.2
12.6
40.5
4.4
Grant
Lincoln ._.._ _
Oregon:
Morrow.
Sherman
Jefferson.. .. . . . --._-.
Montana:
Custer
Musselshell
Qarfield...
Wheatland..
New Mexico: Socorro
Colorado: M off at...
Idaho:
Owyhee..
Clark
Freemont.. .. .. _ ... -.___.
Total
116,319
91,421
21.4
U. S. Bureau of the Census, Population 1930, v. 1 (157).
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 411
The full effects of the situation cannot be measured in economic
terms alone. A tremendous toll of human wastage is involved in
years spent in futile effort to establish a home and a competence,
^Especially for the women and children, often undernourished, the
isolation and the scarcity of schools, medical facilities, and social
opportunities have been a heavy cross to bear — too often it has been
heavier than could be born. Bright hopes that sustained the pioneers
change to dispair as the necessity arises to abandon all and seek a
new home and a new way of living in an uncertain future.
The number of such families is not known. Were it not for relief
and soup kitchens, the tragedies and suffering would be even more
distressing. Even though the extent of this human wastage cannot
be definitely measured, it is clear that it has been accentuated by
planless, unbalanced forms of agriculture in the West.
RANGE LAND SUBMARGINAL FOR PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
The various maladjustments in the use of land already discussed
raise sharply the question of whether the poorer range land is not
submarginal for private ownership. A considerable acreage of such
land is so low in productivity that whether it can remain in private
ownership is questionable. The prevalence of tax delinquency, the
i mount of land abandonment, the low standard of living, the ex-
tent of local rural relief, and the rehabilitation program in many
localities serve to force a recognition of the problem.
Two classes of land are involved. These are (1) range land with
a very low grazing capacity due either to natural deficiencies of soil
and climate or to misuse that has caused a degree of depletion neces-
sitating extremely light stocking for a long period of years to effect
rehabilitation; and (2) much of the land on which the native cover
has been destroyed by cultivation, which has proved to be unprofit-
able if not unsuitable for that use, and which must be revegetated
artificially in order to restore its forage cover.
Insufficient information is now available to determine just what
areas should be classed as submarginal for private ownership. Tak-
ing into account, however, the various factors which have a bearing
upon the matter, there is little question but that there are several
score millions of acres in the first classification. It has been esti-
mated that nearly 25 million acres of land once cultivated is now
abandoned to cultivation. Most of this area is of such low produc-
tivity that it does not justify private ownership, and on a consider-
able part the owners have actually moved away.
Although no satisfactory formula has been worked out whereby
the exact point at which land becomes submarginal for private
ownership can be identified, many of the major contributing factors
are well known.
NATURALLY LOW PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF THE RANGE
Range lands which, owing to low average rainfall, poor soil, or
other unfavorable natural conditions, have extremely low grazing
capacity, are poorly suited to private ownership. Among other
things, the relatively higher cost per animal unit of investment in
water development and other range improvements and of handling
412 THE WESTERN RANGE
livestock contribute to the inability of private owners to retain low
capacity as compared to more productive range. For example, it
has been shown that much of the southern desert-shrub type has a
year-long grazing capacity of only about four or five cows per sec-
tion of land. This range is poorly watered and requires large in-
vestments in water development and fencing to make it fully usable.
Often deep wells each costing $5,000, or more, and half a mile of
fence per section, costing about $150, may be required. Assuming
that one well to a township would be sufficient, it is obvious that a
resulting capital investment of $50 to $75 per animal grazed might
be required for these two improvement items alone. To develop
range at such high cost per head at once places the owner at a dis-
advantage as compared to the operator on higher capacity land
where the same amount of improvements serves a much larger num-
ber of livestock. Low productivity coupled with the high frequency
of drought in a large degree account for the high percentage of
public domain remaining in parts of the Southwest and the inter-
mountain region.
DROUGHT OR OTHER CLIMATIC HAZARDS
Private ownership is not attractive in areas threatened with near
failure of forage crops by frequent drought or occurrence of bliz-
zards, since these induce heavy losses or high cost of supplemental
feeding. Range livestock production is much more hazardous in
most of the semiarid Southwest, for example, with a drought ex-
pectancy of 2 to 4 years in 10 than in the sand hills of Nebraska with
a drougnt expectancy of 1 to 2 years or less in 10.
ACCESSIBILITY TO MARKET
The freight-rate differential from ranch to markets likewise has
a great influence on unit production costs and the ability of range
areas to support private ownership. At the one extreme are the
Illinois farm pastures close to the central market; and at the other
is the hinterland extending from Montana to Arizona, where local
demand is small and distances to central markets are great. The
partial effect of this factor on gross income per unit of salable
product is shown in table 67. The Chicago market was chosen for
this illustration because prices there quite closely control those on
the other midwestern ^ livestock markets. The item of shrinkage
in transit is an additional factor which varies with the distance
or time enroute, but reliable data are not available.
It seems obvious that, other things being equal, land values for
cattle production should be less in Idaho with a $12.32 per head cost
for transportation than in Nebraska with $6.71 or Illinois with
$3.85 per head. Likewise the value of land for sheep raising will
be influenced by the differential of $0.69 per lamb in South Dakota
as compared to, $0.99 in Montana. Certainly, other things being
equal, the cost of getting the product to market does influence the
value of range land and may reduce it to a point below that attrac-
tive to private capital.
AS AN INTEGRATED PAKT OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 413
TABLE 67.— Distribution costs to producer from range States * to Chicago market
CATTLE
Cost per
State from which shipped
Freight
per
hundred-
weight
Other
costs
Total per
hundred-
weight
1,100-
pound
steer or
70-pound
lamb
Idaho .
$0.95
$0.17
$1.12
$12. 32
Montana
.71
.26
.97
10.67
.72
.19
.91
10.01
.45
.16
.61
6.71
South Dakota -
.43
.17
.60
6.60
Illinois
.19
.16
.35
3.85
SHEEP
Idaho
$1.17
$0.55
$1.72
$1.20
Texas - -------------
.97
.66
1.63
1.14
Montana
.98
.44
1.42
.99
Nebraska
.76
.39
1.15
.80
South Dakota ------
.64
.34
.98
.69
Illinois
.24
.20
.44
.31
i Bureau of Railway Economics (26). Based on record of 108 sales days. Three weeks' periods in fall,
1924-29, inclusive.
TAXES AND TAX DELINQUENCY
Theoretically, the tax on land is based on its productive capacity
and should be equalized accordingly. Actually, it is too often the
case that range lands are grouped in one or two valuation classes
for the purpose of taxation, and the poorer land must support a
tax per animal unit of grazing capacity many times greater than
the better lands within the same valuation class. For example, in
some counties a uniform tax of 5 cents per acre is assessed on all
range lands, whereas, based on grazing capacity a tax ranging from
2 to 10 cents per acre would be more equitable. The operator
whose range will support only 1 animal year-long for each 100
acres at 5 cents per acre pays a tax of $5 for each animal unit,
whereas the operator on range which will carry one animal for
each 20 acres pays only $1. Adjustments in the tax base would
remedy this situation, but changes have been made so slowly as
actually to make taxation a factor operating to defeat private
ownership.
This inequitable system, coupled with other range-land disad-
vantages due to naturally low productivity, depletion, and allied
factors, combine to multiply tax delinquency. As already brought
out, in Montana, Colorado, and Oregon, where studies of the tax prob-
lem on farm and range lands have been made, a serious situation
prevails. These are but examples; practically all western States
are affected in an important degree.
Several million acres of range land has already reverted to States
and counties for tax delinquency. That this reversion, as well as
the remaining area making up the total of 65 million acres in State
and county ownership, together with nearly 150 million acres of
usable range in the public domain and minor reservations to which
the stock-raising homestead law applied, are still in public owner-
ship, clearly indicates that there is a large acreage submarginal
for private ownership. Another indication of submarginality is
414 THE WESTERN RANGE
the failure of homesteaders to prove up on nearly 20 million acres
of unperfected entries still on the records.
COST OF RESTORATION AND REHABILITATION
The extent to which the native forage cover has been depleted
is a major factor in the suitability of range land for continued
private ownership. Where the grazing capacity has been so far
reduced that a large acreage per animal unit is required, the pos-
sible returns from the productive capacity are likely to be so low
that the land cannot support taxes, interest, and other costs and
afford a return to the owner. The added heavy expenses required
for rehabilitation increases the capital investment beyond the pos-
sibility for private ownership.
Much of the now depleted privately owned range land probably
never was suited to private ownership. It has been successfully
held during the depletion period because returns were then based
on a yield in excess of the sustained productivity. In effect, there
was a using up of the necessary capital reserve in vegetation and
soil. The resulting depletion has reduced productivity far below
the former sustained yield possibilities. Increases in prices and
other charges have added to the burden against the land until it
can no longer be carried at a, profit. The ability to produce in
excess of sustained yield for a considerable period obscured the
fact that the land was submarginal for private ownership ; but now
depletion accentuates the submarginality.
The cultivation of range land completely destroys the natural
vegetation, and restoration of the native species is a slow process.
As shown elsewhere, such lands in Montana, after 16 years' abandon-
ment had a grazing capacity only 57 percent as great as that on
nearby unbroken ranges which were badly depleted by overgrazing.
Restoration by artificial means of the abandoned cultivated fields
and similarly depleted range land seems to be the only way to
reclaim them within a reasonable time. But experience has shown
that this will cost from $3 to $3.50 per acre or from $50 to $100
for sufficient range to carry one cow for a year. This investment
added to the other costs of production makes private ownership
questionable on other than the very best of such land.
Range land which, although not requiring or justifying artificial
reseeding, has been depleted to a degree that necessitates drastic
reductions in use of livestock for range rehabilitation presents a
serious difficulty for retention in private ownership. Where graz-
iAg capacity is so far reduced that 5 or 10 acres are required to
carry one cow for a month, for example, the cost of ownership
may be excessive.
USE OF PUBLIC RANGE CONCEALED SUBMARGINALITY
With public range available for use without charge, many lands
have been held in private ownership which could not alone have
sustained such ownership. In many instances the owner of a water
hole or other strategic key area has been able to control the use of
enough range to maintain an economic herd. In some instances
where other settlers came in and crowded the range and caused
depletion, productivity declined to such an extent that the private
AS AN INTEGRATED PAKT OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 415
land has not been able to maintain itself. If a reasonble fee is
charged for the use of public lands, it is possible that some of the
private lands which now control public range areas will not be able
to continue returning sufficient profits to the owner to justify their
retention.
UNSATISFACTORY SOCIAL CONDITIONS
The unsatisfactory social conditions now prevailing on many
private range lands, and which have existed in the past on a still
larger scale, are but another indication of submarginality. The toll
of human wastage on poor land indicated by ranch abandonment,
isolation, and scarcity of schools, medical facilities, and other social
opportunities; by the undernourished character of the families;
the heavy feed and crop loans which have had to be made by the
Federal Government and which have been repaid only in small
part; and, more recently, by the high proportion of such rural
population on relief, illustrates clearly the inability of low-quality
range lands to afford a satisfactory living.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Many other factors contribute in varying degrees to feasibility
of such land for private ownership. The suitability of a tract or
region to furnish special products such as baby beef and Easter
lambs; the amount of supplemental feed which must be used; the
expected loss from poisonous plants and other similar causes; and
the availability of credit for meeting emergencies! are among the
considerations. Generally no one factor will decide. It is the total
effect of all factors on production costs as compared to returns on
a long-time sustained yield basis which gives the final answer to
this problem.
Just where the breaking point comes for any given range area
is not now known. Economic studies are urgently needed to aid in
developing a reliable formula for general application to bring about
the orderly adjustment of the ownership difficulties which have been
built up and to facilitate retention in private ownership of all land
sufficiently productive to redeem fully the obligations which such
ownership should entail.
GREATER SECURITY POSSIBLE FROM BALANCED AGRICULTURE
Sudden riches rather than conservative use with a permanent
high standard of living have too often been the goal of stockmen and
bankers in the development of the range resource. That use on a
sustained-yield basis is the only approach to economic and social
security for the range country, has received too little recognition.
Sustained use of the range resource means more than conservation
of the range. It includes a permanent stabilized system of crop agri-
culture as well. Throughout the West, as has been shown, the range
and the ranches are inseparable and both go to make up the agri-
cultural development. In planning for a permanent high level of
use, not only the forage on the range but the supplemental feeds
from farm pastures, hay fields, sugar beets, and other farm sources
must be considered fully. Only in this way can a balanced use de-
416 THE WESTERN RANGE
signed to meet the limitations which arise from shortages in feed
for critical seasons or years be obtained.
Under such a system the recurring curse of drought years can be
largely avoided. The light demand which is made on the grass
and supplemental feeds during good years will build up reserves
of feed, improve the soil, and provide the haystacks necessary to
prevent excessive forced shipment of breeding stock during drought
years. Similarly, it leaves to the operator some option as to ship-
ping dates, thus avoiding the annual dumping of stock on glutted
markets.
Ranch and range credits are likewise made more secure. A per-
manent resource and a steady income go far to remove the speculative
feature from range financing and therefore justify a lower rate of
interest.
Livestock losses have in the past too often canceled possible profits.
That this debit entry is largely avoided by good range management
coordinated with good ranch operation is no secret. Yet the issue
has not been faced squarely. Rule-of -thumb management has not
considered this feature. Likewise, the relation of calf and lamb
crops to the availability of range forage and to possible profits is
too often misunderstood or ignored. A calf crop of 50 rather than
80 percent or a lamb crop of 65 instead of 100 percent or greater is
a high price to pay for improper management. The capital invest-
ment in the breeding herd is the same in both instances. No busi-
ness can stand such an unnecessary reduction in units of output and
prosper.
Improved breeding has been stressed as a possible way to increase
the chance for profit. Good sires have been supplied while low-
grade cows and ewes have been culled ruthlessly to get the benefits
of quality production. But the full influence of inadequate forage
has been overlooked and the benefits of improved breeding have not
been fully realized. Investments intended to increase the weight and
quality of steers and lambs pay best dividends only when the animals
are supplied with ample feed.
Unfortunately, the range country carries a handicap in its location.
In this, some areas, such as parts of California, Oregon, and Wash-
ington, are exceptions. Elsewhere, a freight barrier must be hurdled
if the West is to compete successfully. The one outstanding favor-
able feature whereby the West can recoup this differential is in
cheap range forage. Good-quality livestock ready for the block or
commanding a premium price as feeders help to overcome this handi-
cap. Here again, coordinated sustained yield production from the
range and ranch is required. Ample cheap feed, fed to good stock,
should and will overcome the handicap of distance.
The economic home-unit principle is generally recognized as a
sound social objective in distributing the use of the range. It must
be appreciated, however, that this does not necessarily mean owner-
ship of all of the range which is needed to run the required number
of stock. In fact, the evidence previously presented indicates that
forage from leased land or from permits to use public land costs the
livestock operator less than does ownership in fee simple, even
though in the case of leasing the landowner must pay the excess costs.
The minimum requirement should be security in the use of ample
range, regardless of ownership, for the number of stock, whether
AS AN INTEGRATED PART OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE 417
it be 150 cows or only the few head needed to supplement other cash
farm income.
In literally thousands of cases throughout the West it has been
demonstrated that with an adequate number of stock, an owned
ranch producing supplemental feeds commensurate with the opera-
tion, and a permit on a nearby national forest with assurance of
enough reasonably cheap range forage, a high plane of living is
possible. For more than 25 years this has bieen the objective,,
although it has not always been attained, in the distribution of graz-
ing privileges on the national forests. It is to these homes that the
radio and washing-machine salesmen rather than the relief agent
and social worker make their calls.
Conversely, as discussed in another section, national-forest ex-
perience also proves that where numbers of stock grazed per per-
mittee are too low, the sound social values which should flow from
the range are not realized. It is in this , group of permittees with
the fewest numbers of stock that turn-over is greatest.
After a study of 304 ranches in the northern Great Plains and
discussion with a large number of ranchmen, M. L. Wilson and
associates (187) concluded that a strictly economic unit for a cattle
ranch in that region must support at least 150 head of breeding cows
and should own or control 5 to 7 sections of the prevalent type of
dry range. Where there are other major sources of income the num-
ber of stock may be correspondingly smaller. The fundamental
requirement was found to be consolidation of sufficient land into suit-
able units of operation. Vass and Pearson {170) from a similar
study in Wyoming found that those ranches with less than 200 head
of productive units were losing on the average 3.79 percent, while
the large outfits were making 2.53 percent profits above all costs.
The economic unit will vary in size, depending on the location and
the type of ranch.
Ranch operations in the sand hills of Nebraska are considered to
be among the more stable and successful in the West. Hedges (72)
reports that the early failure of 640-acre homesteads under the Kin-
kaid Act of 1904 enabled the stockmen to consolidate holdings into
units of substantial size. His study of 47 ranches, varying in size
from 1,360 acres and 111 cattle to 29,280 acres and 1,868 cattle, and
averaging 6,681 acres, disclosed few forced sales, a small percent of
tax delinquency, and a livestock industry close to normal. In this
particular locality the constant threat of blowouts in the sandy soil
has effectively discouraged overstocking and depletion of the range.
The same soil condition has discouraged crop farming other than
hay production. Here again plenty of range forage, ample wild
or tame hay for winter use, and units large enough for economic
production have resulted in a stable livestock industry and a well-
balanced agricultural enterprise.
In a recent survey of economic conditions on the Ashland Division
of the Ouster National Forest, it was found that among ranches
with more than 130 head of cattle there were no relief cases, rela-
tively little tax delinquency, and a fairly adequate net income per
person. Below 130 head, the social and economic situation rapidly
became worse.
Here and there throughout the West, are equally successful out-
fits operating in large measure on private lands. In each of the
64946—36 28
418 THE WESTERN RANGE
States there is a small minority of livestock operators who have
realized the value of protecting their ranges and have profited
thereby. They seem to have attained security with well managed
ranges and ranches in spite of the handicaps of finances, climate,
and markets.
Despite maladjustments, mistakes, and thoughtless exploitation,
the agriculture of the West is a splendid enterprise, with its mag-
nificent grain fields and its specialized crops ranging from cotton
fields of the Imperial Valley to hardy hay crops able to mature in
high frosty meadows. Beautiful towns and cities are embraced by
its broad plains and splendid valleys, but surrounding and envelop-
ing all is the range — the original crop that supports and nurtures
the West. Where soil is too thin or slopes are too steep, or where
the climate is too harsh for cultivated crops or other higher land
use, are the grasslands, needing not be sowed — only reaped. Per-
sistent, long-suffering, now badly depleted and eroded, the range is
still the essential ingredient of a balanced way of living in the West.
Surely, it is not too much to ask that the management of ranges
and ranches be so coordinated that greater social and economic
security may be enjoyed by future generations.
THE PROBLEM OF INTEGRATION OF WESTERN AGRICULTURE
Realization of the full benefits possible from a well-balanced west-
ern agriculture depends upon finding some solution of the problems
which arise from the maladjustments that have developed from the
haphazard use of range and closely related crop land. In reaching
a desirable solution, range forage and crop production, the quality
of livestock products best suited to a region of comparatively high
freight rates, and the effect of all on the social structure and well-
being of the West must be considered. Thus the best development
of rural life of the West seems to hinge on finding a lasting solu-
tion for the following six groups of problems which naturally are
closely interrelated.
(1) How, in the light of the cost of restoration, can the very
great acreage of abandoned, submarginal dry-farm lands be restored
to productive range use in a reasonable period of time?
(2) To what extent and how best can a better balance between
the use of range forage and of farm-grown feeds contribute to the
solution of overstocking of the western ranges ?
(3) How can key areas, such as lambing grounds, water holes,
driveways, and holding grounds be restored to a status of ownership
and productivity which will insure their maximum contribution
to orderly range management?
(4) How far can farm-grown feeds and ranges now used at other
seasons be substituted for the badly depleted and insufficient spring
range ?
(5) How can stockmen generally be made to realize that insuffi-
cient feed either on the range or on the feed lot, tends to cancel
investments in improved breeding herds by reducing weights, and
calf and lamb crops?
(6) What integration of public and private ranges with farms
and ranches will aid most effectively in establishing the livestock
industry on an economic unit basis whereby a reasonably high
standard of living will be assured ?
VI. PROGRAM
Most of the factual basis for a constructive program, now possible
with the data available and that which could readily be obtained,
has been laid in the preceding discussion.
The following discussion outlines the program of constructive
action believed necessary in the public interest and most practical
in the light of all pertinent considerations, and includes supporting
data only where necessary to the main purpose of the discussion.
This program is submitted in the belief that the survey of the range
situation so far given will fail in its purpose unless translated into
terms of the remedial action required of both public and private
agencies, the cost, and the time necessary for consummation.
419
THE PROBABLE FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP OF RANGE LANDS
By S. B. SHOW, Regional Forester, California Region
An attempt will be made here to redefine problems created by mal-
adjustments in form of use and ownership of range lands, the solu-
tion of which is vital if the ranges are to realize permanently their
possibilities. In addition, the approximate magnitude in terms of
area of each separate problem will be estimated; possible methods
of action to meet the problems will be examined; and solutions pro-
posed. A summary of the entire estimated task of needed changes
in land use and land ownership, and particularly of that part which
public agencies should assume, is also a part of the section.
THE PROBLEMS or USE
THE BACKGROUND
Many forces and movements, the details of which are set forth in
other sections of this report, long since combined to create serious
maladjustments in the use of millions of acres of western lands.
Reviewed briefly, these forces include (1) the tremendous westward
surges of agricultural occupation with multitudes of individuals
frantically seeking out and competing for every acre of land that
conceivably might produce a crop of grain; (2) the comparable mush-
room growth of the range livestock industry, with each owner fight-
ing desperately for grass, lest someone else should obtain it first;
(3) the spirit of the pioneer (expressed accurately in public-land
laws) to gamble with nature, with economic forces, with competi-
tors, to make a quick killing by raiding the stored accumulation of
resources; (4) the belief in bigger and better as an end worthy in
itself; and (5) the lack of understanding of true public values in-
volved, such as those represented by watershed protection and wild-
life range.
When the inexorable process of deflation set in, the penalties began
to pile up for unwise dry farming, for exploitative use of ranges,
for abuse of vitally important watersheds, for overexpansion and
overproduction of grain and animals, for unstable individual and
community ventures, for overelaboration of local government and
• overextension of public debt. Naturally most thought and effort,
both public and private, was directed toward maintenance of the
status quo, rather than toward frank recognition of basic structural
weaknesses in the edifice of western crop agriculture and range use,
or orderly and planned means of cure.
Today, as the cumulative effects of the past have been accentuated
by drought and depression, it is readily apparent that a truly per-
manent and self-sustaining civilization is impossible in many parts
of the western range country unless a planned effort is made to
<work out widespread readjustments in use of land. In these read-
421
422 THE WESTEKN RANGE
justments, the problem which stands out most clearly, as other sec-
tions of the report show, is that of restoring uneconomically and
destructively cropped lands to range use.
THE PROBLEM OF UNECONOMICALLY CROPPED LAND
On a large area of level or gently sloping lands, dry farming has
been attempted and has proven uneconomic. The illusion that dry
farming had an almost unlimited field for economic application
arose from a combination of using virgin soil, enjoying abnormally
favorable climatic conditions, and selling in markets that could
absorb whatever was offered. The pressure of the World War?
which made production through dry farming not alone an oppor-
tunity for profit, but a patriotic duty as well, inevitably resulted in
breaking with the plow millions of acres which had been the cream of
the western range lands. Great areas of the short-grass plains east
of the Rockies, in the western Dakotas, in western Nebraska and
Kansas, in eastern Montana, in central and western Texas, that
once were excellent range, are now unneeded and uneconomic crop-
land. So, too, are large areas in central Washington, central and
eastern Oregon, and in Idaho and Utah. Furthermore, the range
values of these lands are gone and can be restored only at some
expense and waiting; the crop values are negative.
In addition to these large areas of dry-farmed wheatlands, the
problem involves hill farms in the central valley foothills of Cali-
fornia, where onlv the most temporary combination of favorable
climatic factors, virgin soil, and market demand could make crop
use a success, and where cultivation has resulted in erosion, with
depletion of the soil, and damage to watershed and other public
values.
Most of this type of land was excellent range, most of it is defi-
nitely uneconomic for crops, and most of it can fulfill its true and
permanent economic function only if restored to range use. In all
such instances, systematic working out of this problem is highly
important to the range-livestock industry, not only because the for-
age-producing capacity of the lands is high, but because it will
restore to use many natural range units unencumbered by a patch-
work pattern of cropped and fenced rectangles.
THE AREAS TO CHANGE FROM CROP TO OTHER USE
The Resettlement Administration has made preliminary estimates
of the acreage of land in farms within certain problem areas, much
of which should be encouraged to change to noncrop use, and has
developed an initial purchase program. The total area of these
project farms within the 17 range States is 44,413,000 acres. Of
the total, about 2 million acres are in forest belts and should revert
to timber production. Of the remaining 42 million acres, about 11
million are croplands and 31 million are range land. Nearly two-
thirds of the cropland, or 7.2 million acres, are regarded by the
Resettlement Administration as permanently submarginal for crops.
The program of the Resettlement Administration involves pur-
chase of lands of this type, as the most effective means to bring-
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 423
about desirable changes in use. Thus existing public policy con-
templates public ownership, at least, as an intermediate step, for
such lands.
Outside of these problem areas a large acreage of land has been
cropped at one time or another, and while much of it is no longer
under cultivation, it is still in private ownership and may be culti-
vated again. Part of this has already been abandoned because of
low productivity. At least 8 million acres of these scattered tracts
of croplands are in such condition that public ownership is the
logical outcome.
General information developed through the present studies indi-
cates that the area of submarginal croplands of these types which
will need to be taken over by public agencies, including both present
problems areas and other scattered units, will reach a minimum of 15
million acres.
THE PROBLEM OF COORDINATING RANGE USE WITH THE NATIONAL AGRI-
CULTURAL-ADJUSTMENT AND LAND-USE PROGRAMS
The center of gravity of crop agriculture lies in the Middle West.
Whatever changes in production are worked out there from a plan-
wise approach to the national crop-adjustment problem, will auto-
matically affect other regions which now produce similar crops. If,
as is possible, lands devoted to crops are changed to pasture, with a
resulting increase in production of meat animals, the number of
meat animals required for estimated consumptive needs will be less
from the western range country than in the past or the present. A
reduction of this sort might be absorbed by the generally lighter
stocking of the ranges that, as this report shows unmistakably, is
essential to preserve the range itself. Or it might be absorbed
through nonuse of certain range areas; or by increased production
of supplemental feeds and a shorter season on the range; or by a
combination of lighter stocking, nonuse, and shorter grazing sea-
son. The general agricultural crop adjustment plan is not now
complete and authoritative enough to justify any final conclusion,
but it is necessary to recognize that changes in use of range lands
over and above those suggested in this report may \vell result.
OTHER USE ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS
The report indicates that, on considerable areas, outstanding pub-
lic values in watershed protection and range for wildlife are deterio-
rating through overuse by domestic stock. It is possible, and in-
deed probable, that on part of this land nonuse by domestic live-
stock may be required, although insufficient detailed work has been
done to furnish a final and conclusive answer. In addition, certain
privately owned lands are needed for rounding out natural range
units within and adjacent to the national forests.
The entire question of the most effective form of ownership to
protect public values on range lands of these classes, whether in-
volving nonuse or not, will be examined later in this section. It can
best be seen as a whole, rather than through separate study of the
parts.
424 THE WESTERN RANGE
THE PROBLEMS OF PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
OWNERSHIP PATTERN CAUSES, EFFECTS, AND RESPONSIBILITY
Many forces, set forth in detail elsewhere in this report, have com-
!bined to create a crazy-quilt pattern of range-land ownership, ill-
adapted alike to the requirements of the range livestock industry
and of the public. These forces include (1) ill-advised public-land
laws, well adapted for the humid eastern United States but unsuited
for the arid range country ; (2) the struggle by individual stockmen
for security through ownership of the ranges; (3) forces of compe-
tition within the range-livestock industry, which compelled land
ownership ; (4) cumulative depletion of the range with reduced graz-
ing capacity; (5) growing and more complex pressure of public needs
on private rangelands ; (6) excessive unit investments in range land,
forced by competitive bidding against other stockmen and dry farm-
ers; (7) too easy credit — a temptation to unwise investment in range-
lands at prices above their true value; (8) high taxes caused by
overelaboration of local government; (9) high prices set by State
*or Federal laws for sale of State lands; (10) high interest rates;
(11) lack of knowledge of true grazing capacity and true value of
low-grade lands; and (12) speculation in range lands.
Any ownership pattern resulting from the unplanned and undi-
rected operation of these contradictory forces must necessarily have
far-reaching effects.
Merely to list the undesirable consequences which this ownership
pattern causes or helps to cause is to indicate the complex and far-
reaching nature of the ownership problem. Among the effects, dis-
cussed elsewhere in the report, are depletion of the range itself; wide-
spread overcapitalization, which coupled with range depletion
makes successful operation difficult; uneconomic and unbalanced
individual livestock operations, in turn leading to unstable com-
munities; shifting and unstable private ownership; a vicious circle
of tax reversion, resale to private ownership, and more tax reversion ;
another of foreclosure, resale, and more foreclosure; automatic ig-
noring, owing to exploitative use, of public values inherent in the
lands; difficulty in management on the range; creation of an enor-
mous task of range rehabilitation, to restore forage values, involving
both cash outlays for reseeding, and great reduction in stocking;
and creation of an additional task of recapturing watershed values,
involving cash outlay for erosion control as well as reduction or
elimination of stock.
The net effect of range depletion and the high cost to restore forage
and public values is to place a difficult or impossible task before
many private owners; that is, to make additional expenditures in
the face of decreasing returns.
Superficial examination of the outward and visible facts of range
depletion, unworkable ownership pattern, and widespread overcapi-
talization of the range livestock industry may readily lead to the
conclusion that the maladjustments now so evident are due primarily
to the lack of knowledge or acquisitiveness of those engaged in the
business. That stockmen might have helped to avoid or to solve
some of the present problems in their early phases is true. A more
-conservative pattern of business management; less gambling on the
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 425
big year; less reliance on mere numbers of stock owned; more care-
ful attention to the range as part of the productive plant— all these
would have helped. And it is far from clear that group action by
stockmen has focused as effectively as it might on constructive legis-
lation for public lands, and on the use of public credit to stabilize
the business on a conservative basis. But study of the long historical
process which has finally resulted in present-day difficulties shows
that public inattention to the range resources and to the civilization
built around it, has also underlain the whole process.
For example, until 1934 no start was made by the Federal Gov-
ernment to manage the public domain constructively. Even then
only about one-half was reserved, and on that half eventual passage
to private ownership was still contemplated. This action was de-
layed for a third of a century after the stockmen users themselves
had recognized the need for Federal reservation and management.
It was delayed for a quarter of a century after a successful system of
range management on public lands in the national forests had
demonstrated its worth.
Not only that; in other respects as well, both Federal and State
Governments have failed to comprehend the stockmen's difficulties
and take obvious steps to enlighten them. The land-disposal laws
of the Federal Government still stand on the statute books, decades
after their inapplicability to arid and low-grade western range lands
was made clearly evident. Over half a century ago it was recom-
mended that public lands in the arid regions be passed to private
ownership in economic-sized units, adequate to support a family.
No such provision ever became a law. For decades the range live-
stock operator paid excessive rates of interest on borrowed money,,
and belated public action to protect him came in the main after he
was committed to debts that were ruinous. The producer has al-
ways been at the mercy of the buyer in the major marketing centers
and even today the public protection and assistance afforded him
seems none too complete. Public agricultural-research agencies, con-
cerned primarily with the problems of crop agriculture, have paid
relatively slight attention to furnishing the indispensable factual
basis for more intelligent private-range management. Some Statesr
through failure to manage their range lands constructively and
through unjustified prices for their lands, have added to the problem
of private ownership, and States and counties as well, through
building costly structures for local government, based on high tax
rates, and through repeated repassing of tax-reverted lands to
private ownership, have further contributed.
WPIY SHOULD THE PUBLIC BE INTERESTED?
A simple listing of these errors of omission and commission by
the public furnishes in itself justification for public interest in and
attention to the whole problem of the range resource and the owner-
ship problem which is a part of it. Even though recognition of the
problem is belated, the most elementary considerations of equity be-
tween the Government and its people dictate an attempt to repair
damages to which public neglect has contributed.
But there are other forceful and affirmative reasons for analysis
of the ownership problem.
426 THE WESTERN RANGE
THE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP PROBLEM IS REAL AND NOT SUPERFICIAL
Although depression and drought have accentuated and thrown
into sharper focus the problems of ownership of range lands,
drought and depression did not create the problems. Nor will their
absence remove the problems. Earlier sections of the report have
sketched the history of the unplanned and uncontrolled development
of the range livestock businesses, of western crop agriculture and its
dry-farming phase, of the consequences of the operation of the pub-
lic-land laws, of the unwieldy and top-heavy capital investment
structure forced on the individual stockman by competition for
range, all of which tended toward overstocking and resultant range
depletion.
What happened is clear enough. In many cases — perhaps ex-
treme ones — an individual started with a small herd. He had to
acquire a home ranch to produce supplemental feed, meanwhile
depending on public range for part-time feed. The investment in
the ranch led to increase in his herd. Other owners competed for
the public range he had enjoyed. His only solution was to acquire
range lands of his own, that he might be assured of essential feed.
He borrowed to acquire the range. Taxes and other costs were
added to his cost of production. He moved in an ever-climbing
spiral of more stock in an effort to meet his fixed costs, thus heavier
stocking, thus poorer condition and lower selling prices, thus deple-
tion of his productive capital — the range.
Where prices at which States were required to sell range lands
were fixed, or where the price for range lands was fixed by competi-
tive bidding for dry-farming use, the stockman paid a price bearing
little relation to the true value.
He was far from being a free agent. He would have been much
better able to operate profitably without the load of range land, thus
to reduce his fixed investment and annual costs and thereby increase
the proportion of his total capital investment represented by his
breeding herd. But competition drove him to attempt self -protec-
tion unwisely through ownership.
This whole process, which has operated in many places and for
many years, has an inevitability, once started, which small remedies
and minor tinkerings can hardly alter. The individual is caught in a
trap and only with difficulty can halt or reverse the process that
has engaged him therein, however clearly he may recognize that he
is committing economic suicide ; that doing things obviously against
his own interest, such as overstocking and depreciation of capital
stock — the range — can lead only to one end. When lands are han-
dled primarily under pressure of real or apparent immediate finan-
cial needs rather than as a permanent productive instrument, then
clearly a real problem of private range-land ownership exists.
By no means all stockmen have been caught in the process sketched
above. Many were sufficiently free of compelling financial pressure
so that they might have managed their ranges more conservatively,
but the evidence is that few have done so. Regardless of ability or
inability to manage conservatively, the end result of overstocking
has been range depletion, one of the major reasons for present own-
ership problems.
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 427
CONTINUED WASTAGE OF BASIC RESOURCES IS INTOLERABLE
In any event, an attempt to weigh the relative responsibility of
private owners and public agencies is not the issue, because the pri-
vate-land problem is one affecting not alone the individual but the
public as well. For public policy can hardly tolerate continued
drifting toward eventual destruction of the range resource, around
which the economy of much of the West is built.
The mere fact that the cash value of the forage produced per acre
per year from the lower grade range is not high, does not obscure
the fact that with hundreds of millions of acres involved, the aggre-
gate value is high. Even where destruction of the range resource
does not affect other values such as watershed, game, and recreation,
preventable destruction of a basis of national wealth clearly cannot
be accepted. Over and above all other considerations stands the
fact that the public must, in case of need, step in to protect itself
against loss of a basic source of primary wealth.
THE SOLUTION MUST BE A JOINT UNDERTAKING OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC
OWNERSHIP
Since the present difficulties of too much low-grade land in private
ownership, and too little attention to much of the land in Federal,
State, and county ownership, have developed largely through lack
of any or of the proper public action, clearly the solution must come
through a reconsideration of the existing ownership pattern.
This study has established ample evidence that the whole job
of ownership and constructive management of the range area of
728 million acres is a partnership undertaking. The conclusion is
here advanced that primarily the public function is to help to create
conditions under which private ownership of the better range lands
can continue, but with a more workable chance to function suc-
cessfully than in the past. Although in many places private own-
ership heretofore has conserved neither the public values of water-
shed and wildlife nor the private value of the range, it by no means
follows that all private ownership has so failed, nor that with more
public effort to determine its true field, private ownership will not
be more able to conserve both private and public values.
The questions then become: (1) What form should the unscram-
bling of the ownership pattern take, in order to give private owner-
ship a more workable chance? (2) What means of public action are
available for this broad purpose and which of these, in the light of
experience, is likely to be most effective?
THE POSSIBLE MEANS OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE TO STRENGTHEN PRIVATE
RANGE-LAND OWNERSHIP
Problems of private range-land ownership, particularly of lower-
grade lands, revolve largely, though not wholly, around financial
difficulties in balancing costs and returns within the competitive
.structure of the business.
428 THE WESTERN RANGE
THE POSSIBILITY OF REDUCING CARRYING COSTS
Of the factors bearing on the chance for success of the range-
livestock business, two stand out as of major weight in the financial
overload now carried by many operators. They are the high invest-
ment per acre, when compared to true income value of low-grade
lands, and the high level of local taxes on such lands.
Reduction in costs of local government has long been recognized
as desirable and studies have shown unmistakably that consolidations
of units and functions could increase rather than decrease local gov-
ernmental efficiency. But such rigid things as local pride, intrenched
bodies having taxing powers, existing laws, outstanding bonds, re-
sistance to change, and the growing tendency for State and Federal
Governments to take over county functions and obligations, have
combined to prevent many fundamental changes in local taxation.
Altogether it seems unlikely that progress toward solution of this
great problem, which affects all private lands and property, will be
rapid enough to be effective in solving the immediate problem of
lower-grade private range lands. And with existing commitments,
it is far from sure how far reductions can go.
POSSIBILITY OF DECREASING CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN RANGE LANDS
That capital investment per acre in range lands is often excessive
is as evident as that local taxes are often too high. In both cases
a heavy deflation is needed to give private ownership a fair chance
at success. But the forces resisting deflation to a workable basis are
powerful, since individuals, like local authorities, tend to hang on
to the end and attempt to maintain an unworkable set-up. Even
though an eventual loss must be accepted, in the one case by local
government, in the other by individual owners, the process of de-
flation is slow and irregular. While it^is under way, the basic
resource — the range — will necessarily continue to suffer.
So without attempting to say that these major problems affecting
private range-land ownership cannot or will not be finally solved
in a way to improve the opportunity for successful private range
livestock operation, it may be concluded merely that an enormous
problem of rebuilding exists, that a prompt and adequate attack
is needed, and that methods of attack should be judged first of all
by their immediate applicability.
POSSIBILITY OF ADDITIONAL PUBLIC ASSISTANCE IN CREDIT AND MARKETING
The range-livestock business has been subject to various hazards of
which excessive costs of range-land ownership is only 'one. The
Federal Government has already recognized, through creation of the
Farm Credit Administration and its subsidiaries, the need of live-
stock producers to be freed from the excessive interest rates of
private banking, and to have access to credit better adapted to oper-
ating needs. This venture into the field of public assistance is al-
ready a going concern. In the industrial problem of marketing,
also, there is a field in which public assistance is clearly desirable
to ensure that the producer is not wholly at the mercy of agents
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 429
and packers. But in neither field does such assistance aid greatly
in solving the problems of private ownership of low-grade lands
or of those possessing high public values.
POSSIBILITY OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE THROUGH INCREASE IN RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
Another section of the report discusses in detail the unsolved prob-
lems affecting range lands and the range livestock business, and pro-
poses a more adequate research program to redeem this part of the
public's responsibility.
A complete program will, over a period of years, greatly assist
operators in the conduct of their businesses. But research and ex-
tension can hardly solve immediate and pressing ownership problems.
POSSIBILITY OF REGULATION
Regulation by law to compel the individual owner to manage his
land constructively and conservatively, so as to preserve both forage
and public values, might well be effective if mistreatment of land
were due primarily to ignorance or willfulness and the owner were
financially able to do the things required by law to remedy abuse.
But the private range-land problem was largely created and con-
tinues to exist precisely because many owners were not wholly free
agents, financially able to manage constructively. As a general
means of effective public action, regulation by law can hardly be
looked on with confidence. Quite possibly in the long run, when
private ownership of range lands is on a far more stable basis and
most land is managed to preserve its values, regulation may be a
useful tool to bring a stubborn minority into line with the general
level of private ownership; but at present any general attempt at
regulation would almost certainly be premature. To be effective, the
legal requirements would include the very things private owner-
ship is in large measure financially unable to do.
POSSIBILITY OF SUBSIDIES
Subsidies, on the contrary, would give to the private owner some
cash return in recognition of the fact that many range lands are
vested with definite public values, which it is vital to preserve. The
giving of a subsidy and the acceptance thereof constitute in effect
a contract between the public and the owner, in which the recompense
for public expenditures is obtained in the form of better land
condition.
In whatever form the contractual quid pro quo appears, its
existence is implicit. Whether the Federal agency determines in
detail the things to be done, and checks performance, or whether it
merely assumes that the subsidy will automatically cause the de-
sired things to come to pass, the prime purpose in any event is to
cause to happen certain things— desirable in the public interest—
which otherwise would not happen.
The problem of public assistance or subsidy to owners in man-
agement of their land is inherently complex and elusive. A variety
of Federal-aid ventures have long been in operation, including the
430 THE WESTERN RANGE
highways, the agricultural colleges, private and State forest lands,
and others. In all of these one common denominator appears: The
Federal Government deals with and through a strong professional
State administrative organization, so that the relationship is be-
tween single units of Federal and State Government and is on a
professional basis. That there may be a place for Federal aid as
a means of helping to solve problems of private range-land owner-
ship is clear. But the barriers to immediate adoption of this as a
general formula are evident. At present there are no State gov-
ernmental organizations, professional in character, to deal with in
the field of range-land management. As an immediate step, the
Federal agency would necessarily deal directly with a multitude of
individual owners, thus setting up a relationship undesirably ignor-
ing the States. Certainly adequate State agencies could be developed
over a term of years, as the States assume their part in the whole
range-management undertaking, but such a process takes years, a&
experience in other fields shows.
The stockmen are organized in trade associations, varying in
strength and character. But to deal with the livestock associa-
tions would be to expect a high degree of self-regulation, since
the return to the Federal Government to offset the aid would be
in the form of better condition of range lands. This could be ob-
tained only by improving land-husbandry practices and the enforc-
ing agency — the association — would consist of landowners who were
regulating themselves. The record of self-regulation in other fields
hardly justifies a strong conviction that it would be more effective
in this. Thus, the inherent weakness of the subsidy as a weapon
of attack on this sort of problem, and the innate defects of self-
regulation seem entirely clear.
The need for subsidy arises because the individual landowner,
in failing to do things in treatment of his property that it is in
his own interest to do, has finally done injury to the public interest.
In this situation public aid is justified, usually because the owner
is in a more or less desperate situation in his own business. It
comes to him necessarily as individual assistance, and unless it is
coupled with tight regulation in use of land the results are unlikely
to be satisfactory from the public viewpoint.
POSSIBILITY OF PUBLIC ACQUISITION
The record of both the Federal and State Governments in con-
structive management of range lands is decidedly inconsistent and
spotty.
The Federal Government has for 30 years, through the national
forests, conducted a large-scale demonstration in range management
on public lands, during the course of which many constructive
developments of major consequence have been worked out through
trial and conflict, and the application of improved management
developed by research and experience. And though the record of
accomplishment is far from perfect, national-forest range manage-
ment has, on the whole, been markedly successful; the mechanism
and much of the technique have been worked out ; and the develop-
ment of a professionally competent and resident organization has
set a workable pattern for similar public ventures.
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 431
But an even larger area of Federal range land — the public
domain — has until very recently drifted with no pretense of admin-
istration, and has paid in depletion the penalty of long-continued
neglect. Even now but half of this Federal property is in process
of being placed under administration.
The Indian range lands, too, have suffered severely through over-
grazing, though supervised by the Federal Government. It is only
recently that more constructive policies and plans have been devel-
oped, looking to rehabilitation of this resource on all these lands,
though some have been well handled for years.
Thus the record to date of the Federal management of range land
is part reasonably good, part bad. The national-forest experience
at least demonstrates what can be done and shows it to be within the
capacity of the Federal Government to do an effective job.
The record of the States in management of their range land is on
the whole discouraging. The general desire, largely set by Federal
grant laws, to obtain immediately cash income and the handling of
lands by State bodies having a real-estate point of view, have meant
exploitative use and range depletion on most State lands. Effective
ownership and management of low-grade range lands, and those pos-
sessing public values, usually demands cash outlays as investment
or administrative cost which may not be immediately returned
through severance charges for forage.
In its financial ability to make the expenditures required to do the
job thoroughly, the Federal Government has the advantage of out-
standing financial strength. It has also unique and far greater
opportunity to reimburse itself over a period for capital investments
required to develop the range property and for current costs of ad-
ministration, than does any other kind of ownership, private, State,
or county. For any source of wealth, such as the range, produces
commodities which, between the point of production and the final
consumer, pass through the hands of many businesses. Each of
these is subject to the operation of the corporation- or income-tax
laws, and some part of the profit created at each step of the producer-
to-consumer chain finally finds its way to the Federal Treasury.
So, in addition to a direct and equitable severance charge for
forage, which the Federal Government can collect in common with
other kinds of ownership, and which in effect can be used to help
defray costs of ownership and management, the Federal Govern-
ment through other and indirect means can reimburse itself and even
make a profit as a landowner.
Some States have already adopted the income tax as a revenue-
producing mechanism, and so enjoy in part the same opportunity
as the Federal Government to obtain revenue from each step in the
progress from production to consumption. But, since a large part
of the products of the range finds its way into interstate commerce,
no State can well be on competitive equality with the Federal Gov-
ernment in this respect.
Thus, except where costs of range-land ownership are grossly above
the direct severance charge, the Federal Government, in particular,
in preserving range values through ownership and constructive man-
agement, accomplishes several things. In the narrow and restrictive
sense of repaying its own Treasury for costs, it can usually come
432 THE WESTEKN" KANGE
out at least even. It preserves a primary source of wealth, both of
forage and of public values — part of the physical basis for national
self-support. In maintaining unimpaired a base capable of suporting
population, it prevents to that extent the piling up of unemployed
and relief cases, and in the end avoids the inevitable public cost of
supporting directly such people.
Public, and particularly Federal, ownership thus appears to be
on the whole the most effective weapon of attack on the problems
of private ownership of low-grade range lands, and of deteriorating
range lands having high public values.
Adoption of this working method is, moreover, simply an ex-
pansion of existing policies, long recognized in undertakings of the
Federal Government. The land-purchase program of the Resettle-
ment Administration is dealing with submarginal dry-farmed lands,
with eroding hill farms, and with depleted range lands. The pur-
chase program for national-forest purposes has recently recognized
depleted range lands with high watershed values as eligible for
operations of the Clarke-McNary law. In both cases there is recog-
nition that the public must protect both itself and its citizens as
property owners, where the latter are unable to do so.
A balanced judgment of the efficacy of public acquisition and
management as an immediate means of attack on the ownership
problems must take into account both favorable and unfavorable
considerations. On the one hand, public acquisition strikes directly
at the problems, is established as a function and operation of gov-
ernment, and management of public land has been successful on the
national forests. On the other hand, an adequate program has been
established neither bv the States nor the Federal Government, the
vital question of jurisdiction over Federal range lands is not yet
settled, and the record of public range-land management is spotty.
But on the whole, if used to supplement other desirable public
action, public acquisition has a large and irreplaceable part in any
comprehensive attack on the range-land problem. In other words,
as public acquisition frees private ownership of lands unsuited for
that status, even with public assistance, the better lands remaining
in private ownership can be more readily managed in a constructive
way. Public assistance on them should then be more effective.
In this conclusion, no question of philosophical or political prin-
ciples or dogma is involved. It is simply a case of a realistic ap-
proach to the actualities of a situation, using the most effective means
of action available. Public land ownership is not a panacea for all
the ills of the range-livestock industries or of range depletion, but it
is one method of attack.
INADEQUACY OF DATA PREVENTS ACCURATE DETERMINATION OF SIZE OF
PROBLEMS
The processes which have resulted in present problems of private
range-land ownership are clear enough. And the reality of the
problems is evident. But to determine where, how much, and what
lands are unsuited for permanent private ownership and manage-
ment, and which should therefore come into public ownership is
a far more difficult matter. Prior to this study, no comprehensive
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 433
attempt was made to appraise the range-land problem as a whole,
and even the basic facts as to areas, distribution of ownership, carry-
ing capacity of major areas and types, are available only as approxi-
mations. Studies of the economics of the industry as a whole, and
of the economics of private range-land ownership in particular,
have been fragmentary, made on different bases, and at different
times. Indeed, a large part of the effort to obtain facts applicable
to private lands has been devoted to the animal-husbandry phases
of the range livestock business, rather than to the land-management
or economic phases which have centered on public lands. The pos-
sibilities of improving the opportunity for business success of range
livestock operators through various forms of public and private ac-
tion have been but partially explored.
Thus, the attempt here made to move from the general to the
particular, and to approximate the size and location of the future
range-land ownership distribution, should be regarded as simply a
first trial, subject to refinement as more detailed surveys and studies
of the range country become available. That a basis different and
superior to the one here used could be developed is quite possible.
But with the scanty information available, the basis adopted has
appeared to give at least an approximation of the job ahead. This
phase of the entire study is a first exploration, and necessarily should
be followed by a great deal of further study.
ESTIMATED SHIFTS IN RANGE LANDS SUBMARGINAL FOR PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP
One problem, as has been said earlier, concerns low-grade lands,
already depleted, where the costs of ownership and of restoration
of productivity make continued destructive exploitation under pri-
vate ownership probable or inevitable, and permanent and con-
structive private ownership doubtful or impossible. These are lands
where private ownership cannot be expected to do the job of restora-
tion and constructive management. On such lands, in the main, car-
rying costs in the form of taxes and interest are disproportionately
high when compared to the true income value from the lands.
Thus a vicious circle of overstocking, resulting depletion, and then
continued overstocking has often appeared to the owner the easiest
way out in his efforts to obtain feed at a cost he can afford. Un-
aided escape from the circle, requiring reduction in stocking and
cash outlay for range restoration, is unlikely.
THE BASIS FOR ESTIMATING NEEDED SHIFTS FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC
OWNERSHIP
The section on financial handicaps has shown that range-land
ownership is one of the major elements of the capital-investment
structure which contributes to financial rigidity of the business,
and may be so high as to reduce the proportion of the total capital
investment represented by breeding herds to a point that losses
instead of profits follow. It has shown, too, that the ratio between
investment in breeding herds and other capital items, largely land,
64946—36 29
434 THE WESTERN RANGE
has decreased from 1 to 1% in the nineties to almost 1 to 6 today.
It is perfectly clear that the frozen investment in land has become
so excessively high that an impossible burden of producing cash
income is placed on the breeding herd. Investment in range land
is the element of the capital structure most readily affected by
public action.
The absolute or proportionate part of the total capital investment
which can safely be in range lands depends, it is evident, on the
relative competitive position of the individual livestock business.
Thus, for example, too large or too small operations within a given
region, all else being equal, are at a competitive disadvantage with
businesses of a size that experience has proved to be most efficient.
Again, all businesses within a region may have a competitive freight
differential against them in reaching major markets.
So the key to an appraisal of how much range land private owner-
ship can carry successfully lies not so much in a consideration of
the land itself as in the present relative regional opportunities for
profitable range-livestock businesses. That is, the more favorable
the chance for the business as a whole, the greater the chance of the
operator to own and manage his own range ; and conversely, the less
favorable his chance as a whole the greater is the need for public
ownership of the range as a means of stabilizing the business and
placing it on a competitive parity with other regions.
Public action in furnishing credit and marketing facilities blan-
kets the range region, with equal service in each part of the whole.
But from this approach to a determination of the true field for addi-
tional public ownership of range land, there will necessarily be dif-
ferential action in the several States or regions.
In breaking down the problem of opportunity for profit in the
range-livestock business at least five groups of factors must be con-
sidered, covering forage production, general production costs, feed
costs, stability of the ranch unit, and marketing. The first group of
factors, in detail, includes:
1. The average volume of forage — that is, whether the number of
acres per head is large, medium, or small.
2. The condition of the range and cost to rehabilitate, both vary-
ing greatly in different types and regions.
3. The susceptibility to mistreatment — whether the range type
can or cannot withstand punishment.
4. The usual forage composition — whether the feed is adapted to
turning off fat stock and whether the range is suitable for different
classes of stock.
5. The dependability of forage — whether there are wide fluctua-
tions in different years because of climatic variations.
6. The frequency of severe winters and severe drought — whether
saving of large quantities of feed is necessary as a safeguard against
heavy losses.
7. The possibilities of yearlong range operations — whether a
long, medium, or short period on the range is possible.
The second group of factors dealing with costs of production in
other than feed items includes:
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP
1. The investment per head in land and improvements— the- base
on which interest must be earned.
2. The general level of indebtedness — the degree to which, immedi-
ate financial needs control.
3. The general level of local taxes.
4. The cost of management on the range — whether intensive han-
dling and considerable investment in range improvements are
required.
The third group of factors, having to do with the cost of feedy
are:
1. The cost of leased range — the degree to which the operator is at
the mercy of the landowner, and accessibility of the range,
2. The cost of supplemental feed, whether produced on home
ranch or purchased,
3. The natural set-up for balanced operation — whether range lands
best adapted for different seasons of use are in balance with each
other in quantity and location.
4. The possibility for balance with agricultural operations —
whether byproducts of crop operation are available.
5. The dependability of tenure of owned or leased ranch) and
range.
The fourth group of factors, dealing with efficiency of livestock
operations, includes the following four:
1. Average size of operation — whether too small, too large, or
within the zone of greatest efficiency.
2. The general level of skill of operators, including the degree of
owner attention to the business.
3. The general level of losses on ranch and range from various
factors.
4. The degree of attention by research agencies to problems of
range-livestock businesses.
The final group of factors is concerned with two important details
of marketing and transportation :
1. Whether the range is accessible to a single or to more than one-
major market.
2. Relative freight cost compared to other producing region.
A summation of all of the above factors determines the relative
advantages and disadvantages of different range types.
The results of many studies of the range-livestock business supple-
mented by the knowledge of men thoroughly familiar with the entire
western range country have been combined in rating the relative-
favorableness of the nine major-range types. Each factor in each
type was rated as above average, average, or below average in favor-
bleness. For example, nearness to major markets rates as above
average for the tall-grass type, below average for the sagebrush-
grass type, and about average for the Pacific-bunchgrass type.
The number of pluses, minuses, and plus-minuses totaled for each
type, gave a relative weighted average. The tall-grass type, for
example, showed 17 of 22 factors as favorable, and one as average,,
whereas the southern desert-shrub type had three factors favorable
and one average.
436 THE WESTERN KANGE
RATING OF OPPORTUNITY FOR PRIVATE MANAGEMENT IN DIFFERENT
FORAGE TYPES
The results, expressed as a single figure of relative favorableness
for the different range types, serve to separate the types into four
groups, as follows:
Most favorable: Percent
Tall grass 76
Short grass 65
Moderately favorable:
Pacific bunchgrass 45
Woodland-chaparral 45
Semidesert grass 40
Slightly favorable:
Pinon-juniper 27
Sagebrush-grass 23
Least favorable:
Salt-desert shrub 17
Southern desert shrub 12
These ratings and groupings are necessarily approximations. They
do not and cannot give more than a broad picture of the absolute
degree of opportunity for private range management in any single
type, but they do give a fair approximation of the comparative
advantages of the several types.
This plan of rating and; therefore, its results are based on the
present situation. In utilizing the results as a criterion for judging
the future place of private range-land ownership, the assumption
must be that the rating of the individual factors — which combine to
make the total rating — will not alter markedly. That this is a fair
assumption is evident if the 22 factors enumerated above are classi-
fied into two groups — (1) the fixed factors dealing with the char-
acter, geography, and relationships of the range itself and (2) those
dealing with political and economic condition and relationships.
If that is done, the latter or theoretical group comprises only five
factors — the investment per head in land and improvements, the
general level of indebtedness, the cost of leased range, the dependa-
bility of tenure, and the general level of local taxes. Of these five,
the two most important — investment in land and improvements, and
level of local taxes — have already been characterized as likely to
alter but slowly. The present situation, therefore, as regards these
is justified as part of the basis for the rating of private opportunity
for successful private range management.
The significance of the figures in the above tabulation, as a guide
to the solution of the problem of future distribution of range -land
ownership, is readily apparent from the findings of the section of
the report dealing with financial handicaps of the range-livestock
industries. A major conclusion of the analysis was that since private
ownership of range lands decreases the proportion of the total capi-
tal investment in the breeding herd and thereby increases the finan-
cial rigidity of the business, the justifiable ownership of range land
depends primarily on the business success of the venture as a whole.
It follows then that in the tall-grass and short-grass types, rated
as 76 percent and 65 percent favorable for private range-livestock
operations, the individual operator can reasonably be expected, since
FUTUEE USE AND OWNEKSHIP 437
he clearly has the opportunity, to own and manage constructively the
great bulk of the range land he uses.
No definite and authoritative guide exists that will solve the prob-
lem of just what proportion of the total range in these types is
adapted for private ownership. In a comparable study of the own-
ership problem of forest lands (A National Plan for American For-
estry; Future Distribution of Forest Land Ownership (154)),. it
was found after careful analysis that in the most favorable region
for private forestry about 15 percent of the total land either was
required for public purposes or was enough lower in quality than
the average for the region so that it was ill-suited to private
ownership.
This conclusion for forest lands favorable for private forestry
cannot of course be automatically applied to range lands. In each
of the two types, however, it may be assumed that there is a zone or
band, ranging from perhaps 5 to 25 percent within which the true
scope of public ownership lies. Part of the tall-grass type, for ex-
ample, is on the breaks of several rivers and so is ill- adapted to
private ownership. That the lower limit cannot be 0 percent is
evident because some lands will certainly be needed for wildlife, or
other public purposes. That the upper limit cannot be high is clear
because the lands have on the whole demonstrated their suitability in
private ownership, and because no large areas of critical watershed
lands — relative to the acreage of the types — are found in this study.
Further detailed study may show that 15 percent of the total type
area is too high or too low. It is used here simply as an approxima-
tion of the part of the whole type probably destined for eventual
public ownership.
At the other end of the scale of f avorableness, the southern desert-
shrub type, rating 12 percent, is clearly one within which private
ownership of range land is financially justified to but a slight ex-
tent. With a generally unfavorable business opportunity, extensive
investments, and annual costs on range lands would tend strongly
to tip the balance toward losses rather than profits. But even in
so generally unfavorable a region there are areas so much superior
to the regional average as to be adapted to private ownership.
Favorable location, or better than average soil, can readily make
this difference. Here again the proportion of the whole type that
Erivate ownership can handle cannot be fixed definitely. In the
>ast favorable forest region it was found that 10 percent of the
total now privately owned was suited for permanent private owner-
ship. Here a band of perhaps 5 to 15 percent of the total range
type area will be likely to remain in private ownership. Lands
needed for home ranches and islands of exceptionally high pro-
ductivity would probably account for 10 percent of the type area,
and that proportion is adopted as an approximation for the least
favorable group of range types.
For the type groups of intermediate opportunity it is assumed
that 40 percent of the present total private range land in the Pacific-
bunchgrass, woodland-chaparral, and semidesert-grass types might
eventually be acquired by public agencies, and 65 percent of the
pinon-juniper and sagebrush-grass type.
438
THE WESTEKN RANGE
Since this method is only an approximation, the results will surely
be modified as more detailed surveys and economic studies of private
ownership are made. But the approximation indicates, if nothing
else, that very large job of recapture through purchase which con-
fronts public agencies, and is adequate justification for beginning an
acquisition program.
PROSPECTIVE PUBLIC ACQUISITION
The areas of private land thus estimated as involved in future
ownership distribution are shown in table 68. Open forest (43,-
568,000 acres) is omitted from this table since probably the highest
potential use of most of these lands is for timber production; es-
timates of future private and public ownership of commercial forest
lands have previously been published; and such of the open-forest
grazing type now in private ownership as should be publicly acquired
is needed for administrative purposes as indicated later in this
discussion.
TABLE 68. — Present areas and prospective future ownersip of present private
land in major range types
Range type
Present area
private land
Area likely
to remain
private
Prospective
shift to public
ownership
Tall grass
Thousand
acres
17, 271
Percent
85
Thousand
acres
2.590
Short grass
148 144
85
22 222
Pacific bunchgrass
35 913
60
14 365
Semidesert grass
48 425
60
19, 370
Woodland-chaparral.
10 640
60
4 256
Pinon-juniper
20 900
35
13 585
Sagebrush-grass
34 791
35
22 614
Southern desert shrub
10 643
10
9 579
Salt-desert shrub
5,251
10
4,726
Total
331 978
66
113 307
Even though the 113 million acres indicated be too high or too low,
clearly the range-land acquisition program should be a large one,
if it is measurably to meet the public responsibility of caring for
lands unsuited for permanent private ownership. Even the carrying
out of the suggested program would leave to private ownership
nearly two-thirds of the western range lands now privately owned.
A rough check of this approach is possible by comparing the indi-
<eated percentage for private range land in each type group estimated
:to remain in private ownership, with the percentage of all land in
tifoe type which has passed to private ownership. The comparison is
given in table 69.
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP
439
TABLE 69. — Comparison by type groups of percentage of all nonforest range land
now in private ownership with percentage now private estimated to remain
private
Range type group
Land now
privately
owned
Present pri-
vate land
estimated to
remain so
Eventual
private land
in entire
type
Tall grass
Percent
Percent
Percent
Short grass
76. 2
85
64.8
Pacific bunchgrass
Semidesert grass
65.4
60
39.2
Woodland-chaparral
Pifton-juniper
1 00 A
Sagebrush-grass
> 32.4
35
11.4
Southern desert shrub
\ oo c
Salt-desert shrub
| 23.5
10
Average
51.6
65.9
34.0
This comparison shows at least that the present level of invest-
ment in range lands is highest in the types where opportunity for
private enterprise, and hence safety of owning range, is highest.
Conversely, investment in range lands is lowest where private oppor-
tunity is lowest. So, in general, the experience of private range-
land ownership checks with the findings of the rating plan as to
relative favoralbleness of the several broad range types.
Data on present grazing capacity and percentage of depletion
from virgin condition of range-type groups (table 70) also bear on
the question of relative suitability for private ownership, because of
the widespread tendency to tax lower-grade lands in a given area at
the same rate as better lands. Thus the poorer tracts tend to carry
disproportionately high costs. The percentage of depletion ob-
viously reflects the need for reduction in stocking and for cash out-
lays to restore forage values, both of which spell a difficult financial
problem for private ownership.
The data in table 70 indicate that the rating of adaptability of
range-type groups to private ownership, which was used in esti-
mating future ownership distribution, is relatively correct.
TABLE 70. — Present grazing capacity and percentage of depletion of range-type
groups
Present area
}
^
Relative
Range-type group
required per
animal-
Average de-
pletion
adaptability
to private
month
ownership
Tall grass
Acres
1
Percent
Short grass
} 3.4
35
1
Pacific bunchgrass
i
Semidesert grass
69
52
2
Woodland-chaparral-. .
|
Pinon-juniper
Sagebrush-grass
8.7
64
3
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub
14.7
67
4
440 THE WESTERN RANGE
ESTIMATED SHIFTS IN PRIVATE RANGE LANDS WITH HIGH PUBLIC
VALUES
Another problem concerns the range lands having key values for
such public purposes as watershed protection, game range, and recrea-
tion, on which private ownership cannot reimburse itself for the cost
of conserving public values.
Under our form of government, workable mechanisms do not exist
to reimburse an individual landowner for care or costs incurred to
preserve or foster public values. A simple example is winter range
for big game. If the herd is to be maintained, feed must deliberately
be saved, and this means understocking rather than full or over-
stocking to domestic animals. The cost lies on the private owner
and there is no ready way in which he can reimburse himself for his
outlay. Not only that, but he is likely to be regarded as a bad citizen,
lacking in public spirit, by groups interested solely in wildlife. He
is on the spot, and individually is helpless. His private ownership is
beset with difficulties, however he handles his land.
Even more complex is the situation of the owner of range land
having high watershed value. Financial pressure for income com-
mensurate with costs may force heavy use, resulting in range deple-
tion, soil deterioration, and unsatisfactory water flow. If he refrains
from overstocking, it costs him something. But the beneficiaries are
perhaps a thousand miles distant, across two or three States.
These cases typify inherent defects in the institution of private
land ownership and raise sharply the question whether some means
can be found either to bolster up continuing private ownership or to
place such lands in public ownership where the public can pay for
the benefits received.
TO RESTORE AND CONSERVE WATERSHED VALUES
In another section of the report the watershed situation on range
lands is presented. On a large part of the private range-land area
watershed values have not been given the consideration which they
justify. Misuse and abuse of private range lands at the headwaters
of streams in Davis County, Utah, for example, are responsible for
the destructive floods in that area. Millions of acres of other private
range lands are badly depleted from overgrazing, and some from
unwise cultivation, with the result that accelerated run-off and ab-
normal erosion are causing other destructive floods, endangering life
and property and silting irrigation, power and municipal reservoirs.
The problem on private lands centers primarily around areas which
are eroding to such an extent that they are contributing silt to major
streams which furnish the water upon which irrigation, industry,
and other community welfare depend. The situation on private
lands and the area which it appears should be acquired by the public
in each watershed class in order to afford adequate protection is
given in table 71.
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 441
TABLE 71. — Watershed situation on private range lands
Character of land
Total
area
Part
to be ac-
quired by
public
Principal water-yielding areas:
Contributing little if any silt
1,000 acres
45,617
7,811
12, 937
96, 155
77, 682
36,823
56, 514
42,008
1,000 acrts
11,000
7,000
10,000
64,000
26,000
Contributing an appreciable amount of silt to streams:
Severely eroded ._.. .-
Materially eroded -
Areas of minor water yield:
Silting streams:
Severely eroded
Materially eroded - ._._.
Not silting streams:
Materially eroded
Slight or no erosion
Total .-
375, 547
118, 000
PRINCIPAL WATER-YIELDING AREAS
The principal water-yielding range area, that is, the range part
of the watersheds yielding 85 percent of the flow of major streams
(183 million acres), is more than one-third in private ownership.
It is possible that most of the 46 million acres of this area which
is not contributing silt to streams might continue in private hands.
Particularly important portions of this area, however, especially
those on municipal watersheds or other high-value or high-erosion
hazard areas, and especially parts severely eroded, should be brought
into public ownership in order permanently to insure use which safe-
guards public interests. A conservative estimate would be one-
fourth or around 11 million acres.
Of the entire principal water-yielding area, 60 million acres is
eroding and contributing an appreciable amount of silt to streams.
About two-thirds of this area is already in public ownership, or in
Indian lands under control of the Federal Government, and requires
principally change in use or restorative treatment.
Since the job of restoration of plant cover on key water-producing
areas that are eroding is a large one, continued private ownership of
any considerable part of the 20.7 million acres of private land so
classed is unlikely to result in the doing of things necessary to pro-
tect public interest. Public ownership and multiple-purpose man-
agement, with the public paying for what it gets, appears to be the
answer. Practically all of the 7.8 million acres that are severely
eroded and most of the 12.9 million acres materially eroded should
be taken into public ownership, or a total of about 17 million acres.
MINOR WATER- YIELDING AREAS
Approximately 174 million acres of private land classed as of
minor water-producing importance is contributing an appreciable
amount of silt to major streams. Although these lands produce but
a small part of the water of the major rivers, they include some of
the most critical erosion areas.
* Outstanding and spectacular examples of erosion are the Missouri
River "breaks" in Montana, and the Badlands of South Dakota.
442 THE WESTERN RANGE
Both are relatively small in area, but because of highly unstable
natural conditions, enhanced by range use, they combine to contribute
a large part of the silt in the Missouri River. This silting can be
reduced by conservative use.
A very much larger area of private lands throughout the West and
especially on the low- water-yield parts of the Colorado, Gila, and
Salt Rivers, and the Rio Grande, makes a less spectacular but even
more important erosion-control problem, because their present im-
paired watershed condition is primarily due to range depletion.
Thin mantles of vegetation, loose and unstable soil, and a delicate
balance of plants to climate, combine to make maintenance of forage
and soil a peculiarly difficult problem. The processes of deteriora-
tion and depletion start readily and proceed rapidly and to extremes ;
whereas rebuilding can hardly be accomplished even under moderate
grazing. The range types primarily involved — such as sagebrush-
grass, southern desert shrub, salt-desert shrub, and pifion- juniper —
are those most susceptible to serious damage by overgrazing, as
shown by the existing depletion, which averages 65 percent for these
types, in contrast to the average of 43 percent for the remaining
range types. A high degree of forage depletion connotes an even
higher degree of watershed deterioration. Moreover, the susceptible
types are in climatic provinces characterized by high summer rain-
fall intensity, and are thus peculiarly liable to severe erosion from
this source. Studies show, too, that the task of restoring forage and
watershed values in these types is difficult and will involve high in-
vestments in reseeding and erosion-control devices in relation to
grazing values. Coupled with this relatively high cost per acre for
restoration is the further characteristic of the named types, that their
grazing capacity is so low that generally they are submarginal for
private ownership.
That public policy should accept the task of restoring such lands
seems obvious, since the silt from them finds its way finally into
major reservoirs, already developed as long-term public investments.
The size of the watershed problem at present cannot be more than
approximated. It involves large areas of public domain, grazing
districts, and Indian reservations, as well as State and private lands.
Of the 174 million acres of private land silting streams, 96 million
acres are severely eroded. Undoubtedly as a minimum, two-thirds
of the latter area should be acquired by the public, possibly 64 million
acres. Most of this land is already submarginal for private owner-
ship because of range depletion or naturally low value. Of the
remaining 78 million acres of land materially eroded, part of which
is submarginal, the acquisition of one-third by the public would
appear to be desirable to assure adequate watershed protection.
TOTAL AREA REQUIRING PUBLIC ACQUISITION
The total area of private land contributing silt to major rivers on
both major and minor water-producing areas is, as shown in table
71, 195 million acres. Improved management on private lands, as
recommended in a later section, if consummated will overcome un-
satisfactory watershed conditions on part of this area; still, on 3,
conservative basis it would appear that approximately 107 million
acres of this silt contributing area on both principal and minor
watersheds should pass out of private ownership. When this area
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 443
is added to the 11 million acres of privately owned nonsilting prin-
cipal water-yielding areas it would make a total of approximately
118 million acres which should be acquired because of watershed
value. This area will include a very large part of the 113 million
acres for which public acquisition is recommended on account of
submarginality.
CRITICAL WATERSHED LANDS REQUIRING NONUSE BY LIVESTOCK
Since overgrazing has been the primary agency which has caused
depletion of the coyer and hence impaired watershed values and
soil wastage, the primary remedy is to be sought in more moderate
stocking. This course may be expected to be effective on most of
the 352 million acres of land contributing silt to streams, and now
more or less seriously eroded. Earlier discussion has made clear
that not all depletion and deterioration are equally rapid, severe,
and consequential. Some of the broad types of range, such as the
short-grass plains, withstand persistent punishment if not too severe.
Such a vegetation mantle may continue under heavy use and neither
forage, water yield, nor soil be critically disturbed. Damage, if not
too far advanced, can be repaired with comparative ease and speed
under moderate use. The foothill type of the Central Valley in
California likewise has a high resistance against misuse.
On the other hand, as has been previously mentioned, semidesert
types on sloping land are especially susceptible to damage. Like-
wise, the better plant types are susceptible to further severe damage
after they have deteriorated so that most of the fertile top soil has.
been lost. Under such conditions, rehabilitation under grazing use
i? extremely slow.
As range types differ in susceptibility to punishment, so do dif-
ferent types and areas vary in their public value for watershed pro-
tection. Areas on the Colorado River watershed, where erosive
processes are already far advanced, are contributing in a major
degree to silting of the Boulder Reservoir. Stopping of such soil
losses becomes obviously of the first importance. Similar lands
back of the Elephant Butte Dam, likewise pouring mud down,
have public value many times greater than their slight value for
forage. On the contrary, many areas of flat desert clearly have
little or no influence on watershed protection.
Thus nonuse is necessary principally in range areas which have
high watershed values and are highly susceptible to damage. Such
conditions are primarily concerned with (1) critical parts of badly
eroding areas which are causing destructive floods, and (2) areas
contributing silt to streams where soils are of such unstable char-
acter and vegetation depletion has reached such an extreme stage
that any use by livestock would impair the effectiveness of the scant
cover now available and cause undue disturbance of the soil. In
the latter instance, ordinarily found on semidesert range typesr
the grazing capacity is naturally so low that, with the depletion
which has occurred, the land is now practically if not actually
submarginal for grazing use by livestock anyway.
Most of the 11.5 million acres now roughly estimated as needing-
permanent nonuse lies in the Great Basin and Southwest. Since
these areas recommended for nonuse, aggregating but 1.6 percent
of the total usable range areas, are principally in the types having
444 THE WESTEKN RANGE
lowest forage values, the reduction in grazing capacity for the
range country as a whole is even less than the percentage of total
area required for nonuse. It is calculated at 0.3 percent of the total
cattle-range capacity and 1.17 percent of the total sheep.
As a matter of fact, so unstable and susceptible to damage are
some of the range types that, even though no consequential
watershed conservation problem existed, there would be a question
whether they should be used for domestic livestock. Establishing a
business on such an unsure and vulnerable basis is hardly to be re-
garded as desirable, either for the individual or the community.
The removal from range use of the 11.5 million acres will for all
practical purposes not affect the industry or the economy of the
range country.
TO PROTECT WILDLIFE
In many places winter range for big game is the indispensable
key to maintaining specific game herds. On the vast majority of
the range area, moderate stocking to domestic animals, within the
true grazing capacity of the range, will leave room for wild animals,
and no blanket removal of livestock is necessary or desirable.
A part of the problem is to remove from range use key areas
urgently needed for recreation or game, where the pressure of these
inescapable demands is so severe as to make any combination with
domestic livestock and other uses impracticable. Where there is
heavy camping or other recreational use, for example, or where there
is a heavy concentration of hunters, even for a short period, the
range livestock business inevitably suffers. Moreover, stock inter-
feres with human use and occupancy, and the unavoidable tension
and conflict must on such key areas be resolved by excluding domes-
tic stock. Considerable parts of the high Sierra in California, for
example, have for years been without domestic stock for this reason.
Removal of such lands from domestic livestock use in particular
localities has been and is inevitable, as competing and inescapable
public demands of growing population and growing outdoor recrea-
tion develop. For example, 4,240,000 acres of usable range on the
national forests have been closed for exclusive use for wildlife and
recreation. Some additional areas may need to be closed from time
to time as specific problems develop. Other areas, as conditions on
adjoining ranges change, may no longer be required for exclusive
use and may be opened for multiple use. The areas so affected form
a relatively small part of the whole range area, but are critically im-
portant where they do exist. Most acute at the present time is the
need for shifting from heavy use by domestic livestock which in turn
practically excludes use by wildlife, to multiple use on certain areas
needed to supplement existing multiple use range. Especially im-
portant is the need for additional winter range to supplement the
present summer game range on the national forests in many places
in the West. This involves both public domain and privately owned
lands. Where privately owned range is involved public acquisition
usually is necessary. In table 72 are given the best available esti-
mates, both for private and for Federal lands, of the additional
area needed to support specific population of game along with
lighter use by livestock. The estimates for game, both for public
and private land, are by the Forest Service; those for waterfowl
areas are by the Biological Survey.
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP
445
TABLE 72. — Areas needed for use of wildlife 1
[In thousands of acres; 000 omitted]
State
Public
domain
Private
land
outside
national
forests
Private
land
inside
national
forests
For
water-
fowl
Total
area
Arizona
844
844
California . .
1,219
384
67
11
1,681
Colorado
5,441
2,734
337
7
8,519
Idaho-
808
260
50
78
1,196
Montana
69
202
210
49
530
Nevada
1,598
13
21
34
1,666
New Mexico
523
396
27
946
Oregon
1,273
120
1,393
Utah
1,733
471
51
(24
2,279
Washington
158
60
218
Wyoming. . _ ...
515
234
24
19
792
Nebraska
74
74
North Dakota
125
125
South Dakota
11
145
71
14
241
Texas
6
6
Total .
14, 192
4,443
1,227
648
20,510
i No estimates are available for Kansas and Oklahoma.
TO ROUND OUT NATIONAL FORESTS AND GRAZING DISTRICTS
Within the national forests are approximately 10.5 million acres
of alienated range lands mostly in scattered relatively small iso-
lated tracts. In other places national-forest boundaries are so lo-
cated as to divide natural topographic livestock or game range units.
Both situations tend to render difficult the application of range man-
agement and the conservation of wildlife. It is estimated that ap-
proximately 8.9 million acres inside and 10 million acres of privately
owned range land adjacent to national- forest boundaries should
be acquired by the Federal Government, of which practically 8.2
million acres is in the open forest type and is not accounted for in
table 68. Much of it is submarginal for private ownership. Prac-
tically all of it is of high public value for watershed protection or
wildlife production or both and overlaps with land recommended
elsewhere for acquisition for those purposes.
The area needed to consolidate grazing districts on the public do-
main is not known, but may be large. The program recommended
later will, if carried out, greatly improve the chance for most effec-
tive management of the districts.
THE NET AREA TO BE ACQUIRED
Public acquisition of range lands now in private ownership has
been found to fulfill five broad purposes. These are :
^ 1. To retire from crop use and restore to range use low-produc-
tivity lands requiring a long period and a cash outlay to restore
range values.
2- To manage constructively and restore productivity on lower-
grade range land, which private ownership tends to exploit and
deplete.
3. To place under conservative management critical deteriorating:
watershed areas.
4. To make available for use by wildlife key tracts of range re-
quired for specific wildlife populations.
446 THE WESTERN KANGE
5. To round out natural range units on and adjacent to the na-
tional forests and to afford them more effective administration for
public purposes.
The estimates of total acreage for each of these purposes and
classes are restated as follows : Acre8
Areas to retire from crop use 15,000,000
Range areas submarginal for private ownership 113, 307, 000
Range areas for protection of critical watershed land 118, 000, 000
Range areas for use of wildlife 6, 318, 000
Range areas to round out natural units in national forests (in-
cluding open-forest type) 18,900,000
If it is assumed that the area in each class coincides not at all with
that in other classes, then obviously the total indicated acquisition
program is the sum of the five class totals. By definition this is true
of the two first items. It is also true of the 8.2 million acres of open-
forest type not accounted for in table 68, which is also included in
the fifth class total above. The indicated program for these three
classes is, therefore, 136.5 million acres.
As to the other two classes of range land, however, the degree of
overlapping is not so readily determined. The detailed calculations,
not repeated here, show that, State by State, the total of retired
cropland, of submarginal range lands and of proposed national-
forest acquisitions in the open- forest type practically equals or ex-
ceeds the estimated area for protection of major watershed areas and
for wildlife range. Without far more extensive field data than are
now available, it is impossible to assert whether, acre by acre, the
smaller will be included in the greater, although in the main prob-
ably they will.
Watershed lands in general would probably be included in the
program already suggested, since on the whole they lie in the types
most susceptible to mistreatment, and least adapted to private owner-
ship. Doubtless, some areas will need to be acquired for watershed
protection alone, but probably these will not be great in comparison
to the entire suggested program.
Range lands acquired for watershed protection, because of sub-
marginality, or for wildlife, should also go far in meeting some
pressing problems of consolidation. Both on and adjoining the na-
tional forests and grazing districts, as already pointed out, are areas
of private land, public ownership of which is required to fully realize
plans for range management and restoration.
So, with present very approximate knowledge, and with a very
large program of public range land acquisition indicated as desir-
able, a minimum of 125 million acres appears to be a conservative
initial program. Critical needs for public ownership of submarginal
range and crop lands, for watershed and wildlife protection, and for
effective Federal range land administration will doubtless be reason-
ably well met by such a program.
CHANGE IN USABLE RANGE AEEA
The net effect then of these probable changes in form of use is to
increase both the area and the grazing capacity of range lands in the
range country.
The decrease in range for domestic livestock by closing to grazing
the critical watershed area of 11% million acres is far less in area
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 447
than the increase in range by the gradual acquisition of the 15
million acres of privately owned submarginal croplands. The graz-
ing capacity of the latter (3,750.000 animal months) will be so far
in excess of that of the area to be closed (1,085,000 animal months)
that ample range will be available for any domestic stock temporarily
removed from limited areas, or whose present numbers may tie
slightly reduced, to provide adequate range for wildlife.
PROBLEMS or PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
THE PROBLEM OF UNRESERVED FEDERAL RANGE LANDS
For range lands on the national forests and for Indian range
land a stable policy has been established. A similar set-up is in
process of being worked out for 80 million acres under the Grazing
Act. But some 82 million acres of public domain beyond the amount
already authorized will still be unreserved and entirely unmanaged.
Not only that but the old public-land laws still operate to pass into
private ownership lands even inferior to millions of acres already
patented and now a major problem in the whole range question.
Permanent reservation of all Federal range lands and revocation
of land-disposal laws which afford an invitation to trouble are
obvious and immediate needs — as other sections of this report show.
• THE PROBLEM OF STATE-OWNED RANGE LANDS
All sorts of situations are found in the several range States.
Scattered square miles of land, impossible to administer, in some;
fairly solid blocks of land in some; and intermediate conditions in
others. The nearest approach to a common denominator is in the
general policy, largely based on Federal grant laws, to pass State
lands to private ownership, to handle them from the real-estate
standpoint, as a source of immediate revenue, rather than from the
land-management or conservation standpoint as a permanent asset.
On the whole, then, State range land policy has had the same
essential defects as the Federal attitude toward the public domain.
The results have been similar — a drift of low-grade lands into
unstable and shifting private ownership — changing one problem for
another with no real progress toward solution.
THE PROBLEM OF TAX-REVERTED LANDS
Records of the location and area of lands which have gone through
the process of tax reversion are incomplete and fragmentary. That
millions of acres have for all practical purposes been abandoned by
private ownership, through persistent tax-delinquency, even though
the counties or the States have not asserted title, is well known.
Naturally, during a continued depression many properties are tax-
delinquent for several years, through inability to pay taxes rather
than through lack of intent. The fragmentary available figures thus
fail to afford a true picture, even for the scattered areas covered,
of the extent of deliberate tax reversion.
It is not always fully appreciated that owners who have thus
abandoned lands have in most cases already gone through all the
448 THE WESTERN RANGE
devices and struggles which ingenuity can devise. To repass such
lands to other private owners, even at reduced valuations — and this
is the common practice and purpose of local government — generally
means a repetition of the losing struggle, with only a different owner.
In many if not most cases the very process of abandonment not
only furnishes a final and convincing decision as to submarginality
of the lands for private ownership but, by inference, gives an answer
as to their future disposition. Clearly, low-grade range lands that
are in fact abandoned should pass to local public ownership as a
first step in recognition of the fact that they are unsuited for private
ownership. The general hesitancy and delay in formal seizure of
title has been due to failure to accept the fact that such lands are
better off in public ownership. A change in this viewpoint ade-
(mately expressed in State laws and in local administrative action
' is urgently needed.
But, because in this process the county loses in tax base and ac-
quires a property requiring cash outlay to restore, it is highly im-
probable that many counties will be financially able to retain any
ownership that involves constructive management. A second phase
is then the passing of title to the State on an equitable basis of
recompense to the county government by the State. Whether the
State in turn consolidates, retains, and manages such lands or passes
them to Federal ownership is not the main question. It is rather a
more ready acceptance of title by the public to lands clearly un-
suited for private ownership on a nonexploitation basis of use.
DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITY BETWEEN STATES AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
IN RANGE-LAND OWNERSHIP
Of the 125 million acres which are estimated as the minimum area
to be acquired and managed by public agencies, much the greater
part, certainly not less than 90 percent, is low-grade land. The
prime reason for its acquisition is to restore productivity and man-
age conservatively — the very things which private ownership cannot
do.
The implication of the very method of estimating the area to be
acquired is that the lands will not yield a large net income, if any.
The justification for public ownership will be the restoration and
preservation of basic wealth and opportunities for private enter-
prise and for support of population, and in addition the protection
of public values in watershed and wildlife. A part, and probably a
large part, of the income to governmental treasuries will come indi-
rectly, chiefly through operation of the income-tax laws.
Since the true grazing capacity, and therefore true rental value, of
such lands is low, since they are depleted to varying degrees, and
since they will require varying periods of nonstock'ing or light stock-
ing to restore productivity, it follows that as an investment they are
unattractive.
Federal laws have colored the attitude of the Western States to-
ward their State-owned range lands so that the dominant purpose
has been to obtain the maximum immediate cash return, and to
worry little about restoring or even maintaining productivity. No
State, for example, has created a professional range-management
FUTURE USE AND OWNERSHIP 449
service, or has utilized fully the technical knowledge and ability of
its Agricultural College staff in handling its range lands. Rather,
the lands have been entrusted to State agencies dominated by the
immediate financial viewpoint.
But leaving aside the indications of past State action, where pub-
lic values of an interstate character, such as watershed protection,
are involved, it is difficult for a State to express its interest through
restraint in managing its lands. Many millions of acres destined
for public acquisition are vested with such public value. They natu-
rally will be managed by the Federal Government, because of the
interstate values on most of the range lands, and because the major
return will be obtained indirectly through maintenance of basic
wealth, rather than directly in cash income from the properties.
Moreover, it is inevitable that the bulk of the acquired lands will
require cash outlays for rehabilitation, probably for some time in
excess of income, particularly since a large area is abandoned dry-
farmed land, requiring substantial cash outlay for rehabilitation.
Not many of the Western States can reasonably be expected to make
such outlays on a large scale, since the burden of carrying existing
State obligations is too great to permit branching out into new
ventures to any high degree.
The other side of the picture is that the States are already in the
range-land business, because of holdings of land grants and prop-
erties acquired through foreclosure. If, as suggested in the section
on legislation, tax-reverted lands are vested in the States, the State
ownership of range lands will increase further. It is unquestion-
ably desirable that the States as partners should share with the
Federal Government the very large job of public ownership and
management of range lands.
Just as in appraising the opportunities for successful private
ownership and management in the less favorable range types, it was
assumed that a certain part of the total in each type was sufficiently
superior to justify private ownership, so, even though range lands in
public ownership are on the whole unattractive as a money-making
investment, some part of the whole should prove superior to the
general level.
As an operating principle in working out the sphere of influence
in the suggested acquisition program of the several States and of
the Federal Government, it is desirable to leave to the States the
most favorable part, with the Federal Government taking over what
neither the private owner nor the States can handle.
Since this report represents the first attempt to appraise the size of
the public ownership job — an appraisal that may well be markedly
low, and one requiring much more study and testing — it would be
altogether premature to attempt a fine-spun division of the job be-
tween State and Federal Governments. There is abundant room for
both agencies.
THE PROCESS OF SOLUTION OF OWNERSHIP AND USE PROBLEMS
A group of overlapping and interwoven ownership- and-use prob-
lems clearly lie close to the core of the problem of restoring and
stabilizing the range. It is equally evident that no single method
64946 — 36 30
450 THE WESTERN RANGE
and no single class of owner can unaided expect to solve difficulties
which have developed from past action and inaction by all. The
solutions will come from many modes of action, both private and
public. In such a partnership venture, a great deal of joint study, a
great deal of good sense, and a genuinely cooperative approach are
requisite.
A broad and accepted division of responsibility which would leave
first to private owners, second to the States, what each can do, and
lastly to the Federal Government what remains, is an obvious and
realistic approach to the whole problem.
The Federal Government has already recognized the existence of
range-land ownership problems and developed several modes of ac-
tion which can help effectively in their solution. Therefore no
major departures in the theory of government need to be considered.
Among means of action, acquisition stands out, not as an exclusive
or theoretically superior method but rather as one that strikes di-
rectly at problems of private lands with high public values, and of
lands submarginal for private ownership.
Clearly the first need in a progressive attack is to initiate a range-
land acquisition program of the order of magnitude apparently re-
quired. Whether the true size of the task is higher or lower than
estimated should not obscure the fact that it is a very large and
urgent task. In any event, many years will be required to carry
out such a large task and one needing such large capital investments
for purchase and rehabilitation of the land. More exact estimates,
and far more exploration of the fields for action by different agencies
of government, are clearly needed, but this fact should not halt a
prompt start. Nor should the obvious but undetermined relation-
ship between land-use adjustments in the range country and in the
central agricultural regions be a deterrent to prompt action. Such
questions can be cooperatively studied and worked out as the ac-
quisition program develops.
For over and above the factual questions for which final answers
are not available stand the clearly established facts that the range
is the permanent key to western agriculture and western economy;
that it has been seriously depleted through overuse and reduced by
uneconomic private ownership ; that its problems can be solved only
through aggressive public action; and that further delay is
intolerable.
That this first attempt to approximate the size of the public
range-land ownership job results in an answer of large size means
simply that the job is a large one. The number of acres acquired
in different types and States will probably vary considerably from
the estimates. The process of working out acquisition programs,
once they are established, takes care of such problems. Public
agencies establish bases of valuation which are strongly conserva-
tive— since if questions of wasting public money arise, the program
will surely cease. Private owners, with often more money tied up
in land than is offered by the public, will not sell unless convinced
that the losses thus accepted will be more than offset by gains in
business efficiency and financial flexibility. So the size and location
of public acquisition is quickly determined, not by studies or laws,
but by private ownership itself. The need is to start acquisition on
a programmed scale commensurate with the job ahead.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS
By C. L. FOBSLING, Director, Appalachian Forest Experiment Station ; FRED P.
CRONEMILLER, Assistant Regional Forester, California Region; PERCY E.
MELIS, Forester, Northern Region; ARNOU) R. STANDING, Range Examiner,
Intermountain Region ; ALVA A. SIMPSON, Associate Director, Plains Shelter-
belt ; and REX KING, Assistant Regional Forester, Southwestern Region
There are two broad classes of range land in the western United
States the ownership and management of which are a public func-
tion. In the first class, typified by the national forests, are lands
representing special values of high public interest, such as timber
growing and mountain headwaters of important streams. Included
in this class are related intermingled areas, usable chiefly for grazing,
wildlife, and recreation or, because of location and topographic
unity, inseparable for the purposes of administration. All of these
intermingled lands in Federal ownership are recognized by law and
usage as being of national-forest character.
In the second class are the range lands of little or no utility for
forest growth and of minor importance as a source of stream flow,
often with forage values so low or so impaired as to be submarginal
for private ownership, requiring protection against erosion and
floods, and demanding conservation of the grazing, wildlife, recrea-
tional, and other resources. Broadly speaking, this class includes
the semiarid or arid plains, the plateaus and minor interspersed
mountains and valleys, and the low quality dry-farm lands. Fed-
erally owned lands in this category are recognized as being of a
character suitable for administration as grazing districts.
In addition, several States, numerous counties, and some of the
municipalities in the West own more or less range land of the two
classes mentioned above. The Federal Government as guardian of
the Indians also has primary responsibility for the management of
Indian range lands. The acreage and present condition of the Fed-
eral, Indian, State, and other publicly owned range lands are shown
in table 73.
TABLE 73. — The present acreage and grazing capacity of puUic and Indian range
lands in the Western States
Ownership and form of management
Gross area
Available
public range
Degree of de-
pletion of
virgin graz-
ing capacity
Estimated
present graz-
ing capacity
Qrazing-district lands:
Grazing districts
Acres
65, 523, 429
Acres
60, 567, 298
Percent
} 67
Acres per an-
imal month
Unreserved public domain
Other . .
96, 664, 752
29, 178, 344
67, 224, 255
21, 598, 875
/
63
Total
191,366 525
149,390 428
12 05
National forest. . .
133,874,972
82, 538, 109
30
7.23
Total Federal
325, 241, 497
231, 928, 537
State
65,397 692
58,203 357
County and municipal.. .
8, 475, 950
6, 880, 575
Total
73 873 642
65 083 932
49
5 66
Total public range. .. .
399, 115, 139
297, 012, 469
Indian lands
51 045 904
48 390 979
51
8 17
Total for public management
450, 161 043
345 403 448
451
452 THE WESTERN RANGE
It is estimated that there is approximately 125 million acres of
primarily low quality alienated range and crop land, including aban-
doned dry farms, which, as pointed out previously, is undoubtedly
destined for some form of public ownership. A considerable share
of this land may automatically revert to State or county on account
of tax delinquency; a smaller part consists of lands, title to which
will revert to State ownership on account of foreclosure on loans
made from State trust funds ; and a third portion should be acquired
by outright public purchase or gift. Whether or not the 125 million
acres is the correct estimate of such lands, and regardless of the form
of public ownership in which it will ultimately rest, it seems quite
evident that the acreages shown in table 73 will eventually be in-
creased by a considerable amount and the task of public-range man-
agement will be increased accordingly.
Practically all of the public lands except the national forests and
Indian lands have been administered with far too little regard for
the perpetuation of yield of resources. This viewpoint still governs
in the case of most State lands and only recently has it been modified
with respect to a part of the open public domain. It is becoming
more and more evident that it is time to undertake a program of
management of all public land if it is to be made to contribute a fair
share to the support of society.
NATIONAL FORESTS AND GRAZING-DISTKICT LANDS 43
The administration of the federally owned range lands should be
of a character that will restore and maintain the range forage and
other values, protect the soil, promote favorable conditions of stream
flow, afford the highest sustained yield of all resources consistent
with the broader purposes for which the lands are held in public
ownership, and best integrate the use of the resources with the use
of other lands in the development of a sound agricultural program
for the Western States. Such an administration involves :
(1) Correlation in use of public lands to obtain the highest net
benefits from all the resources combined.
(2) Skillful management to properly protect, develop, and utilize
these resources.
(3) Integration of the public-range resources with related crop
and other private and public-range land to secure the highest use
from all of the land.
(4) Affording the maximum opportunity practicable to home
builders who are entitled to use the range.
(5) Readjustment of land ownerships and use where needed to
facilitate economical and efficient management and administration of
public-range lands.
(6) A system of administration designed to deal with local prob-
lems in accordance with local conditions insofar as is consistent with
the protection of the public interest.
Policies have long since been adopted and an administrative
organization established in the Department of Agriculture to imple-
ment these aims and objectives on the national forests under the
43 The term "grazing-district lands" is here used to include the group shown in table
73, made up of existing grazing districts, unreserved public domain, arid grazing lands
in those minor reservations classed as "other Federal."
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 453
broad authority conferred by the act of June 4, 1897. Administra-
tion has been a going concern for 30 years and during that time
depletion has been checked and the range has improved an average
of about 19 percent. The resources have been made available for
public use in an orderly manner. The chief task of the future
is to continue the present program with such adjustments as are
necessary to solve existing problems and meet the demands of a
sound agricultural economy.
The grazing districts are administered subject to the act of June
28, 1934. This act confers broad authority on the Secretary of the
Interior but endeavors to write into law specifications for admin-
istration. Many of these specifications are in accordance with the
aims and objectives sought, but, as pointed out earlier in this report
(pp. 286-294) , certain provisions were written into the act which may
offset many of its favorable features. Among its outstanding de-
fects is the limitation of management to 80 million acres, instead of
including the whole 149.4 million acres of usable range suitable for
administration as shown in table 73.
The problems confronting a real and effective administration and
management of the grazing districts are formidable. The produc-
tivity of much of the land is normally low because of adverse
climatic conditions. Long neglected, these federally owned range
lands are now in bad shape. Grazing capacity on the usable area
has been depleted to less than 35 percent of virgin condition. De-
pletion has brought excessive run-off and water or wind erosion of
serious proportions almost everywhere. Wildlife resources have
been greatly diminished. Communities have suffered because of the
uneconomic use of the land.
The solution of these problems exhibits two major phases. The
first is a definite and positive plan for restoration and wise use of
the plant cover for watershed and soil protection and the production
of forage for domestic livestock and game; and second, the inte-
gration of these lands and their resources with related agricultural
lands of the West.
MULTIPLE USE OF RESOURCES
The soundness of the policy of devoting all the land "to its most
productive use for the permanent good of the whole people" and not
for the exclusive benefit of special groups or industries, as pointed
out earlier, has been proved on the national forests. While grazing
of domestic livestock is recognized as a major use of range land it is
important that other resources be given adequate consideration.
The high degree of correlation necessary to obtain effective con-
servation and use of the associated resources on the land emphasizes
the need for territorial rather than functional jurisdiction in admin-
istration of range land. The expert services of other agencies should
be used as needed, but in order to accomplish the necessary cor-
relation and to keep down the cost of administration, a single agency
must retain responsibility on a given body of land. Division of
responsibility according to function on the same land leads to
confusion and unnecessary duplication of expenditures
454 THE WESTERN RANGE
THE NATIONAL FORESTS
The multiple-use principle — including timber production, water-
shed protection, grazing, wildlife propagation, recreation, and other
uses — has been adopted on the national forests and with regard to
grazing and water power, which are not mentioned specifically in
the organic legislation, has been sustained by the highest court.
Adjustments have been made from time to time on the national
forests to meet the requirements of multiple use, and more will be
required in the future. One of the essentials in achieving highest
use of the land is to maintain sufficient flexibility to meet justifiable
new demands as they arise.
Extensive areas exist where the land could well support more
game, and there are others where, owing to the operation of State
laws, there is overpopulation of game at the present time. These
adjustments on the whole will not involve any net reductions in
livestock use for the total range area but may be provided for by
increased forage production, provided adequate range management
is applied.
Watershed protection, timber production, and recreational needs
on the national forests, on the whole, also may be met largely by
local adjustments and improvement in grazing capacity. Com-
mercial timber production plays a part on about 43 million acres
of national-forest ranges, and an additional 22 million acres of other
forest-range areas have important cordwood, fence post, watershed
protection, and other values. Nearly 94 percent of the national-
forest range is of importance in watershed protection. This in-
volves 79 million acres of high water yield. Material or severe
erosion is still occurring on 20.4 million acres which is contributing
silt to major streams. It is estimated in the light of present in-
formation that approximately 336,000 acres of this critical area
may need to be permanently closed to grazing for watershed pro-
tection. This is, however, only about 0.4 percent of the present
usable range area on the national forests or 0.5 percent of the present
grazing capacity.
GRAZING-DISTRIOT LANDS •
The grazing-district lands, besides producing forage for livestock
grazing, have other values including watersheds, some timber, wood-
lands, game, and special outdoor recreation. As in the case of the
national forests, it will be possible to realize on these values by
proper correlation of use and the application of sound range man-
agement, although certain critical areas will require special con-
sideration. The Grazing Act, however, is so colored by specific rec-
ognition of use by domestic livestock that unless the Act is amended
specifically to provide for multiple use this feature of administration
may be neglected.
On approximately 22 million acres forest growth must be con-
sidered. Still larger areas are important for wildlife, especially
winter range.
The main sources of stream flow, because of higher precipitation
and accumulation of snow during the winter, are largely within
the national forests. However, the lower, more arid grazing-district
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 455
lands, which have not been protected, are the source of frequent
disastrous floods and excessive silt, which enter the streams after
they leave the national forests.
Range rehabilitation will provide much of the necessary protec-
tion on the 98 percent of the watershed area that is eroding more or
less seriously. There are conditions, however, where lighter grazing
than the range alone may require will be necessary. Of the total
critical area, of which 74.5 million acres is eroding severely, it is
estimated that 4,338,000 acres should be closed to grazing for water-
shed protection. The total closures amount to about 2.9 percent of
the total range area.
The policy in allotting privileges to graze the range should be kept
sufficiently flexible to permit adjustments as new needs arise for
watershed protection, game production, or other use.
In addition to what may be accomplished by regulated use or
closure, special erosion-control work is needed on a large area of the
grazing-district lands. It is difficult if not impossible at this stage
to estimate the acreage that might succesfully be treated. Methods
and practices are being developed by research and sufficient progress
has been made to indicate that such work has a place in the range
program, but until these studies have determined the practical and
economical limits of application, it is not possible to make a reliable
estimate of what the program should be.
RANGE MANAGEMENT
Range management, as here used, has to do with determining the
proper grazing capacity, season of use, class of livestock, grazing
systems to re vegetate and maintain the range, handling of livestock
on the range, the location and construction of improvements to facil-
itate best use of range, reseeding, game management, and all related
activities necessary to attain the highest use consistent with the pro-
tection and sustained yield of all the resources. In short, it is a job
of applied biology.
Conservation and protection of the resources may be achieved
with little skill or efficiency merely by restricting use. To do so,
however, would deny a dependent population of the use of the re-
sources otherwise available to them. The more efficient method is to
apply the knowledge and skill which will result in the highest yield
of resources consistent with their perpetuation. This should be the
aim in the management of public range.
THE NATIONAL FORElSTS
The major steps in range management in the national forests, in-
cluding adjustments in numbers of livestock and seasons of use to
permit rehabilitation and perpetuation of the forage resources, have
been completed. Grazing capacity, however, is not static. As range
conditions improve, increased use may be possible in some places or
further restrictions may be necessary in others on account of new
demands for other uses, or to correct local overgrazing. The present
stocking of the range is 12'.2 million animal months or at the rate
of 6.76 acres for each animal month. At the moment adjustments
are needed on local areas aggregating approximately 20 percent of
456 THE WESTERN RANGE
the used range area on the national forests to repair damage incurred
by the recent drought and postponed reduction of livestock during
the depression. The present grazing capacity is at the rate of 7.2
acres per animal month. The aggregate reduction needed amounts
to approximately 795,000 animal months or 6.5 percent of the present
total grazing use by domestic livestock. Seasonal use should be cor-
rected on the 12' percent of the range not now in proper adjustment.
These immediate adjustments should be completed within the next 5
years.
It is estimated that, when restored to such productive capacity as
as may be developed within the next 50 years, the national-forest
ranges may be expected to become capable of supporting livestock
at the rate of 6 acres per animal month or 13.7 million animal months
per annum — an increase of approximately 20 percent over the pres-
ent grazing capacity. Most of the restoration can probably be com-
pleted within the next 15 to 20 years. Of the eventual increase in
grazing capacity, however, a part will be shared by additional wild-
life and the equivalent of 55,000 animal months will be subtracted
for areas closed to domestic livestock for watershed protection.
These estimates assume that there will be intensive range manage-
ment. Achievement will fall short of this goal to the extent that
range management falls short of the possibilities now known.
The accomplishment of range management, in addition to more
research as set forth in another section of this report, will require
the completion of a range survey, of management plans, and of range
improvements, artificial reseeding, and additional administrative
personnel, the amounts and costs of which are set forth in a later
part of this section.
GRAZING-DISTRICT LANDS
On the grazing- district lands, in view of the larger area, the long
years of neglect, and the bare beginning of administration, the range-
management task and additional expenditures needed are much larger
than for the national forests. Forage production has been reduced
to less than 35 percent of the original capacity. It is estimated,
based on best available information, that at the present time these
lands are furnishing an inadequate forage supply for 21.9 million
animal months of livestock annually, at the rate of 6.83 acres per
animal month. The present capacity of the usable range area, if
stocked on a basis to stop further depletion, provide watershed pro-
tection, and insure gradual rehabilitation, is estimated to be at the
rate of 12 acres per animal month or approximately 12.4 million
animal months per annum. This represents a reduction of 43 per-
cent from present use. The capacity of the range to support this
reduced number of livestock depends upon how nearly management
is applied to the full extent of its possibilities. If management is
not fully applied, and the broader public interest is to be protected,
an additional reduction of range use will be required, of anywhere
from 10 to 40 percent, depending upon the intensity of management.
The heavily damaged ranges, because of severe soil depletion and
the extremely slow natural process of rebuilding, may not be restored
to full capacity within the next two generations, even under the best
management. It is estimated that the productive capacity of the
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 457
present range area as a whole should be restored sufficiently within
50 years to support adequately the equivalent of the present number
of livestock, or at the rate or 6.8 acres per animal month. A por-
tion of this incerased capacity, however, will be required for game
and for areas closed to grazing for watershed protection.
Other steps in range management in addition to reduction of the
number of livestock to the present grazing capacity are necessary on
each individual range unit. Systems of grazing to promote natural
revegetation must be applied. Areas which cannot be made to re-
vegetate naturally should be reseeded artificially. Improper sea-
sonal use should be corrected. Critical watershed areas should be
located and given special attention or be closed to grazing. Needs
of wildlife must be critically analyzed and provided for. Rodents
should be controlled where damage is excessive. Necessary research
should be undertaken. Watering places and other essential improve-
ments must be planned and constructed to facilitate use of the forage
and the application of range management.
Obviously action to accomplish the adjustments in range use neces-
sary properly to restore the range and use the land should not be
too sudden or too drastic. The whole program should be worked out
by a gradual and orderly process to avoid unnecessaray sacrifice of
present investments of dependent enterprises. The important thing
is that a policy be adopted and a plan of action initiated which in
due time will reach the desired objective. This necessitates a well
planned, closely knit, aggressive, administration.
Because of the wide variation in conditions of topography, soil,
slope, vegetation, rainfall, and dependent watershed values, even
within relatively small areas, and in adjustments needed in land use,
blanket rules and plans in management will not suffice. A separate
prescription, in the form of a management plan based on the local
situation must be prepared for each range of watershed unit. The
first step after the initial temporary broad adjustments are made,
therefore, should be an inventory of resources and conditions to
establsh an adequate factual basis. This should be followed by the
preparation and application of definite range-management plans for
handling each unit of range and thorough periodic inspection to
assure accomplishments.
The investment necessary for management plans, development,
and improvement of the range is discussed under a later heading.
INTEGRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS WITH AGRICULTURE
The development of a sound agricultural program for the West re-
quires the integration of the national-forest and grazing-district
lands with the related agricultural resources in a manner to promote
the social and economic welfare of the dependent population. In
many parts of the West the summer range on the national forests,
the spring-fall and winter range on the grazing districts, privately
owned range lands, and crop lands (especially that best suited to
forage production), are complementary parts of a single agricultural
structure. The aim in the administration of the public range should
be to give preference to the farmer or livestock grower who needs
public range to supplement his crop and range land. Another aim
should be to encourage the building up and maintenance of economic
458 THE WESTERN RANGE
units — that is, home units capable of supporting a family on a reason-
able standard of living — as against concentration of the use of the
public range in the hands of a few.
Application of these principles has met with a fair degree of suc-
cess in the administration of the national forests but several factors
have hindered a more extensive development of home units. One of
these has been the laissez-faire policy in land occupation and use,
including the unregulated use of the open public domain, which has
placed the small farm operator at a disadvantage in acquiring the
necessaray outside farm or range land with which to supplement
national-forest range. A second factor has been the submarginal
nature of a portion of the ranch units outside the national forests.
Still another, in part growing out of the other two, has been the
unstable nature of the occupancy and use of agricultural land in and
adjacent to the national forests. Now that maladjustments in land
ownership and use are beginning to receive attention and at least
part of the public domain is to be regulated as grazing districts, it
will be possible, especially since so much of the range land is still
in public ownership, to begin to correct a bad situation. In such a
program the public and privately owned range and forage croplands
should be considered in full relationship to each other.
Certain adjustments can and should be made on the national forests
and grazing districts on the basis of present knowledge and infor-
mation. But the situation is too complicated to proceed on a cut-
and-fit basis. What is needed is a reconsideration of the whole basic
structure. The first step to such an approach is a comprehensive
resource and economic survey to assemble the basic facts as to total
resources available on all classes of land, to ascertain present con-
dition, adaptability to different uses, interdependability of use, suit-
ability to different kinds of ownership, quantity of range, and other
agricultural land required for a minimum economic home unit and
ultimate best ownership and use. Upon such a basis may then be
built a program of land use and ownership adjustments which will
aim in the end to attain the highest use of all the agricultural re-
sources for the satisfactory support of homes and people. Admin-
istrative policies for public lands should be modified to fit into the
whole pattern. Such a program will require a long period of ad-
justment, but the aim should be to develop the plan and set in motion
the forces which will lead in the direction desired through regular
economic processes.
Such a plan should not automatically contemplate the dissolution
of the larger outfits. There are conditions where, in order to be
economically successful, large capital investment and large scale
operations are necessary and can best be handled as individual or
cooperative enterprises. Such an economy, however, in order to be
socially sound, must comprehend equal or greater stability in sat-
isfactory maintenance of dependent populations than smaller-sized
units, and must be equally efficient in the use of the resources.
Accomplishment of the objective of integrating the forage re-
sources of a grazing district with dependent agricultural resources,
as discussed in the preceding chapter, will require certain modifica-
tions and clarification in the Grazing Act. One clause which should
be repealed gives owners who carry loans on their livestock prefer-
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 459
ence over others in the issuance of permits. This, in effect, promotes
monopoly of the range regardless of how such perpetuation may ad-
versely affect the interest of others. Another clause which should
be clarified may be interpreted to give preference to existing prop-
erty rights rather than to human needs in the distribution of public
benefits. Certain other clauses are ambiguous and might be con-
strued to grant to favorably situated stockmen indefeasible rights
and privileges, either directly or indirectly, by making the Federal
law subservient to State law.
GRAZING FEES AND PAYMENT TO THE STATES
The forage resources on public lands have a value for which the
user should pay a fair fee. The method of range appraisals em-
ployed on the national forests is to relate the fee paid on public
lands to the cost of owned or leased range in the locality, with off-
sets for disadvantages inherent in the public range. This appears
to be fair and equitable and suitable to application on all public
range lands.
At the present time 25 percent of the gross revenue collected for
grazing livestock on national-forest ranges is paid to the States for
distribution to the counties in which it was collected, to be used for
road and school purposes. The Grazing Act provides that 50 percent
of the revenue collected on grazing districts shall be repaid to the
States. There appears to be no sound basis for this inconsistency.
These repayments are made to offset in a measure the income the
States and local subdivisions might have collected through taxa-
tion had the land passed into private ownership. No attempt is
made here to establish an equitable basis for the division of revenue
from public range lands. To do so would require a study which is
beyond the scope of this report; however, it does seem advisable to
mention some of the related facts.
It is true that the local political subdivisions are deprived of some
direct taxes when the land is kept out of private ownership and
administered by the Federal Government. On the other hand, there
are several and perhaps greater indirect benefits. It has been shown
(15J{,, pp. 1095 1124), for example, in connection with the national
forests, that Federal ownership and management of these lands
result in numerous benefits to the States, including (1) stability
and permanency of local industries dependent upon the land; (2)
the protection of watersheds, conservation of wildlife, and develop-
ment of recreational resources; (3) substantial reduction in the out-
lay of States and counties for protection and development of the
natural resources, for construction of roads and trails, and for the
enforcement of State laws and county ordinances. In general Fed-
eral ownership and management is thus a form of Federal aid
to the States. It is not wholly consistent, therefore, that States
should share in an excessive degree in the direct revenue, at least
during the period that the Federal Government is making large
capital investments for improvements to make the land more fully
productive.
460 THE WESTERN RANGE
INTERMINGLED LANDS AND ISOLATED TRACTS
Among the problems which seriously complicate the administra-
tion of public range is that of isolated tracts of alienated range
lands interspersed in the larger bodies of Federal land.
NATIONAL FORESTS
Within the exterior boundaries of the national forests are ap-
proximately 10.5 million acres of intermingled lands, not less than
75 percent of which should be acquired through purchase or
exchange.
Although there is authority for the exchange of public land for
private land within the national-forest boundaries at the present
time, this provision does not satisfactorily meet the situation. Ex-
change of lands will assist in some degree by making it possible to
acquire strategic tracts of private land. In many instances however,
it will only "rob Peter to pay Paul" because management and pro-
tection will merely be transferred from one area to another. Most
of these lands will probably have to be acquired by the Government
by purchase. Legislation is necessary to authorize this procedure.
GEAZTNG-DISTKICT LANDS
On grazing-district lands also administration is handicapped by
a very large acreage of intermingled alienated land. The State-owned
lands in this category either should be blocked up through exchange
and administered by the State either directly or in cooperation with
the Federal Government; or, if left as intermingled lands, man-
agement should be waived to the Federal Government and the pro-
ceeds, after deducting a reasonable amount for cost of administra-
tion, returned to the respective States.
Blocking up of privately owned lands through exchange, as pro-
vided for in the Grazing Act, will help to simplify administration
but does not entirely solve the problem. Much of the intermingled,
submarginal, privately owned lands should eventually be returned
to public ownership if management for perpetuation of the resource
is to result. Where the Government is an important owner, and
pending the adoption of an acquisition program, private owners
should be encouraged to waive management to the Federal Govern-
ment and in exchange be entitled to graze livestock equivalent to
the grazing capacity of the waived lands or to receive the fees
collected by the Government from other users less a reasonable de-
duction for cost of administration.
A special ownership situation is found on ranges where water is
normally scarce and most of the water holes are now controlled by
isolated tracts in private ownership. Unless the isolated tracts are
acquired by the Federal Government, management and administra-
tion of the grazing districts will be seriously interfered with, espe-
cially in view of the terms of the Grazing Act providing that owners
of watering places shall be given preference in the use of the adjoin-
ing range to an extent necessary to use properly such owned or leased
water. This clause may become an instrument for giving rights and
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 461
monopoly in the use of public range and thereby defeat the proper
correlation of public range with other types of agricultural land.
Public interest in public ranges requires that the Government own
and control both the land and the water. The private equity in
many of these watering places should be extinguished by Govern-
ment purchase and the clause of the Grazing Act which grants
adjunctive right of use to the owner or lessor of water should be
repealed.
Another problem is presented by the isolated tracts of public land,
of a few to several thousand acres in area, widely scattered through-
out many of the more solid blocks of privately owned range land in
the West, which cannot readily be administered as parts of grazing
districts. The Grazing Act provides that such tracts not exceeding
760 acres may be sold at public auction. Legal subdivisions of public
land not exceeding 160 acres unsuited to cultivation, may also be
sold to owners of adjoining land whether or not such tract is isolated.
The act also provides for the leasing of isolated tracts, if 640 acres
or more in area, to owners of contiguous lands.
Federal lands within areas more or less of which will be acquired
by the public should, of course, be retained in public ownership
permanently. It would be unfortunate therefore, to dispose of any
isolated tracts until it is known definitely what areas eventually will
revert to the Federal Government or the States.
In range units where there is a moderate quantity of more or less
isolated Federal land, sav 15 to 40 percent, and conditions are favor-
able for private ownership of a large share of the range land, as in
the Pumpkin Creek-Mizpah grazing district in Montana, discussed
earlier in this report, the cooperative-association form of manage-
ment may be successful. The management of the Federal Govern-
ment on its land in such cases should prove an effective guide to
obtaining good management on the privately owned land as well.
Where both the privately owned and public land is submarginal
for private ownership another plan should be followed. West of
the Great Plains region, for example, probably 53 per cent of the
167 million acres of untimbered privately owned range land is
destined for public ownership. In such areas the isolated public
tracts should be leased for terms of 1 to 10 years and, with proper
restrictions as to use, until the ultimate form of ownership of the
bulk of all the land has been determined.
Once a decision has been reached as to which isolated tracts should
be disposed of, first consideration should be given to using such
land as a base for Government exchange in acquiring alienated lands
within the national forests or grazing districts. The final residue
not usable for exchange may then be sold or leased, as provided for
in the Grazing Act.
The whole situation is so complex and so far reaching in its im-
plications that no sales or long-term leases of isolated tracts should
be made until an intensive land classification has been completed that
is designed to determine on a sound factual basis the best ultimate
ownership of each tract. In order to lease small tracts pending the
completion of a classification and adoption of the ultimate program,
it will be necessary to amend the Grazing Act to authorize leasing
of tracts less than 640 acres in area.
462
THE WESTERN RANGE
BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS
Certain adjustments are needed in the boundaries between the
national forests and the present grazing districts as well as addi-
tions to national forests out of the unreserved public domain. These
changes, for the present at least, involve only additions to national
forests in order to include outside lands of national-forest character
and to simplify administration. The lands which should be so added
are shown in table 74. Three-fourths of this total is needed as
winter game range to supplement summer game range now inside
the national forest and thereby to round out yearlong game ranges.
Legislation is required to authorize transfer of land from the
grazing districts or other Federal areas to the national forests in
all States except South Dakota, Utah, and Nevada. Proper cor-
relation in the administration of the national forests and grazing
districts as subsequently discussed would doubtless make unnecessary
the transfer of much of the land between the two classes of reserva-
tions.
In addition to the Federal land which should be included in the
national forests, approximately 10 million acres of privately owned
land now outside the national forests should be acquired to simplify
administration and round out national-forest-management units.
Of this, 4,443,000 acres is required for game range.
TABLE 74. — Federal land which should be added to national forests from grazing
districts and unreserved public domain
Recom-
Addi-
Portions
State
mended
to Com-
mission
on Public
Domain,
tional
needed
for
wildlife
manage-
Total
public
land to
be added
of total
needed
for
wildlife
manage-
1930'
ment
ment
1,000 acres
1,000 acres
1,000 acres
1,000 acres
Arizona.. . .
2,756
568
3,324
844
California
2,439
820
3,259
1,219
Colorado
3,206
2,835
6,041
5,441
Idaho
2,151
77
2,228
808
Montana
905
41
946
69
Nevada . .
1,684
944
2,628
1,598
New Mexico
1,827
279
2,106
523
Oregon
584
689
1,273
1,273
South Dakota
11
11
11
Utah
2,249
635
2,884
1,733
Washington
89
1,127
69
450
158
1,577
158
515
Wyoming
Total
19, 017
7,418
26, 435
14, 192
» A National Plan for American Forestry (154), pp. 644-647.
MACHINERY OF ADMINISTRATION
The national forests and the grazing districts have been established
for the purpose of protecting public interests, which it is recognized
will not be so protected under other forms of ownership or manage-
ment. Many of the problems are technical, involving a knowledge
of plant, animal, and soil sciences, agricultural economics, land-use
adjustments, and, in particular, range management.
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 463
The situation calls for a decentralized administrative organization
with undivided responsibility and authority to transact local business
promptly. The personnel must be qualified by training and experi-
ence to handle business matters with the public and the user and to
apply both the practical and the technical phases of range manage-
ment in accordance with local conditions. This can best be done by a
force of men in the employ of the Government.
These lands also have resources needed in the development of local
communities. Each State in which the lands are located has a dis-
tinct interest in them. There is necessity, therefore, for local view-
point to be represented in the regulation of the use of the resources
to meet local needs. This voice of the local interests may best be
expressed through the cooperation of local groups or associations and
agencies with the Federal agencies, but the Federal Government must
retain final decision on all matters pertaining to the public interest.
NATIONAL FORESTS
Of the two classes of land, the national forests, because of higher
values involved, more complicated association of different resources,
more difficult terrain, and greater variety of conditions and problems
to be dealt with, require a more intensive and hence more expensive
administration.
The cost of administration of grazing of domestic livestock on the
82,538,000 acres of used range on the national forests was at the rate
of $0.0089 per acre for the fiscal years 1932 to 1935. The cost for
wildlife management on this area was $0.0018 per acre, or a total for
domestic livestock and wildlife of $0.0107 per acre.
Because of the pressure of other work on the national forests, range
administration is not receiving the attention it should have. The
range and the vital interests of dependent communities are suffering
because much of the administrative time required for orderly and
well-coordinated range use is being unavoidably devoted to other
duties. To meet this need the administrative force on the national
forests should be augmented by 125 additional qualified men for
range management, at an additional cost of $0.006 per acre of used
range, and an additional administrative personnel for wildlife man-
agement at a cost of $0.0042, bringing the total cost for both livestock
and wildlife administration up to $0.0209 per acre.
The capital investment for improvements already installed on na-
tional-forest ranges, including range fences, corrals, stock driveways,
water developments, buildings, and range surveys and management
plans, exclusive of roads, is in the neighborhood of 5.8 million dol-
lars, or about $0.07 per acre. Table 75 shows the more important
additional improvements, developments, and other investments re-
quired properly to utilize and improve the resources and a proposed
annual expenditure for a. 5-year period to install these improvements.
The total proposed additional improvements would bring the total
investment in used range up to $0.2107 per acre.
This estimate does not include an item for structural erosion-con-
trol work. Work of this character is necessary only where restric-
tion of grazing and artificial revegetation will not result in checking
erosion within a reasonable time and is justified only where high
464
THE WESTERN RANGE
values are at stake. Examples in each of several States are shown
in table 76.
TABLE 75. — Capital investments required and annual cost of proposed 5-year
program on 82.5 million acres of available national-forest range
Annual
Project
Size of
project
Total cost
Cost per
acre l
Time
to com-
plete
expendi-
tures for
first
5-year
period
Acres
Years
Range surveys and management plans
« 56, 800, 000
$512, 000
3 $0. 0062
5
$102, 000
Artificial re vegetation . _ ._ -
780, 000
2, 730, 000
4. 0331
20
136 000
Rodent control
8, 000, 000
640,000
0078
5
128 000
Miles
Range fences
13,300
4, 376, 000
.0530
10
438,000
Number
Water developments ... .
8,205
3, 362, 000
.0407
10
338, 000
Investment in present improvements
5, 768, 000
.0699
Total
17, 388, 000
.2107
1, 140 000
i Cost per acre is the total cost prorated to the 82,538,109 acres of used range.
'This is total acres to be covered and includes nongrazed and privately owned land mixed with usable
Federal range.
» The cost for the 56.8 million acres actually to be covered is $0.009 per acre.
« Cost per acre actually to be covered is $3.50.
TABLE 76. — Examples' of areas needing structural erosion control on national
forests
State
Type of erosion
Type of control
Area
Cost
per
acre
Total
cost
Washington
Gully
Check dams .
Acres
5,000
$20
$100, OOC
Oregon
do
Check dams and reseeding
10,000
15
150 000
California
Sheet and gully
Check dams and re vegetation .
2,000
25
50,000
Utah
...do— .
Trench terraces and revegetation.
1,000
45
45, 000
Arizona
do .
Di version and spreading
65,000
2.5
162, 500
New Mexico
do
do
1,700
3
5,100
THE GRAZING DISTRICTS
The net usable Federal range land in the present grazing districts,
unreserved public domain, and other unregulated areas, all of which
should be put under control in grazing districts or added to the
national forests, is 149,390,428 acres. To administer this land ade-
quately with an independent agency, including correlated use of all
the resources, necessary technical services, range inspections, clerical
work, and land examinations, will cost approximately $2,260,000 per
annum, or $0.0151 per acre. This estimate is based upon the
experience of the Forest Service. The wildlife management pro-
gram for this land will cost at least an additional $150,000, or
approximately $0.001 per acre.
The capital investments needed properly to develop and improve
the grazing-district land and a proposed annual expenditure for a
5-year period are shown in table 77. The eventual total investment,
as shown, will amount to $0.39 per acre, of which about 31/? million
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC KANGE LANDS
465
dollars should be spent per annum during the next 5 years. In
addition, some structural erosion-control work will be necessary,
but data are not available at this time upon which to base a reliable
estimate. Additional rodent-control work may be needed, depending
upon the extent to which infestation may spread. The largest single
item is an average of nearly $0.31 per acre for the rehabilitation
of depleted range areas, which should be restored both to control
erosion and increase the forage supply.
TABLE 77. — Capital investment required and annual cost of proposed 5-year
program for 149.4 million acres of available range on grazing-district land
Project
Size of project
Total cost
Cost per
acre1
Time to
complete
Annual ex-
penditure
for first
5-year
period
Range surveys and management plans
Artificial revegetation. . _ .
Acres
> 149, 390, 428
18, 000, 000
$666,000
45, 900, 000
$0.0045
3. 3072
Yean
5
20
$133, 000
2, 295, 000
Rodent control
40, 000, 000
3,200,000
.0214
10
320, 000
Range fences
Mites
16, 900
4, 861, 000
.0325
10
486,000
Water developments ...
Number
6,050
3,022,000
.0202
10
302,000
Total investment.
57, 649, 000
.3859
3, 636, 000
'Cost per acre is the total cost prorated to the 149,390,428 acres of available range.
8 This equals the total available range but includes some nongrazed and intermingled privately owned
range in amounts about offsetting available range which does not need to be covered.
* The cost for the 18,000,000 acres actually to be covered is $2.55 per acre.
COSTS AND RETURNS
Present operating cost and returns from grazing domestic live-
stock on the national forests and grazing districts and the estimated
amounts under the essential administrative measures here proposed
are shown on an acreage basis in table 78. Capital expenditures for
range improvements already constructed, partly from emergency and
relief funds in recent years, are not included in the present annual
costs. The carrying charges for maintenance and replacement of
such improvementSj however, are included. The cash income from
grazing on the national forests is based upon the estimated present
grazing capacity and that 50 years hence and the base or average
rate of the present grazing fees. The income from the grazing dis-
tricts is based upon the estimated present and future grazing ca-
pacities and an assumed grazing fee approximately two-thirds that
of the base rate on the national forests. The cost of maintaining im-
provements and the replacement charge are determined from cost
records for existing improvements on the national forests. These
figures for maintenance and replacements do not include any charges
for artificial revegetation, rodent control, or erosion-control work.
Nor is there included any item for road or trail developments, nor
Federal contributions to States and counties in lieu of taxes. Fur-
thermore, the rate charged for grazing use may change and the esti-
mated cost of the additional improvements needed may be affected
by changes in labor rates and price of material. These data are pre-
64946— 36 si
466
THE WESTERN RANGE
sented to afford some idea, based on the information available, of
what the cost and income from the public range enterprise may be.
TABLE 78. — Present and estimated proposed annual costs and cash returns per
acre from national- forest range and grazing -district lands
Annual cost item and income
Present grazing ca-
pacity and
development
status
Grazing capacity 50
years hence with
proposed im-
provements
National
forest
Grazing
district
National
forest
Grazing
district
Carrying charges on improvements:
Maintenance .
$0.0047
.0043
.0089
0179
0)
0)
0)
$0.0118
.0107
.0149
.0374
.0283
$0. 0038
.0038
.0151
.0227
.0176
Replacement
Cost of administration
Total annual cost
Income from grazing of domestic livestock ..
.0235
$0. 0099
1 Management of grazing-di strict lands by the Federal Government has been started so recently that
administration has not yet been fully developed and improvement cost data are not available.
The principal point in these cost and return data is that the Fed-
eral range lands are likely not to constitute a source of net direct
cash income. /In fact, unless the grazing fees are made higher as the
necessary improvements are installed, the costs will be higher than
the amount paid into the United States Treasury. It will involve
an increase ultimately of approximately 30 percent above the pres-
ent average base rate of 14.5 cents per head per month for cattle and
4.5 cents for sheep on the national forests, and of approximately
30 percent above the assumed rate of 9.6 cents a month for cattle
and 3.0 cents for sheep on the grazing districts. There is justifica-
tion for such increases because the improvements installed and bet-
tered forage conditions on the public range will result in a direct
benefit to the user for which it is only reasonable that he should pay.
Moreover the solvency of the Federal range enterprise cannot be
calculated wholly in terms of direct net cash income from grazing
alone. In addition to the grazing fees must be considered the in-
come and other taxes which the forage resources, when converted
into marketable meat and wool, will yield on a sustained basis to
the Federal Government and the various political subdivisions. The
public range will also help to sustain the taxable value of related
lands. Even the benefits from the range resources are not to be
measured only on the basis of direct income from fees or indirect
returns through taxes, because this feed supply is a link in a chain
of resources, which, if weakened either by depletion or denial of use,
would adversely affect the entire economic structure of the West.
Regardless of whether or not grazing on Federal range lands is
self -liquidating, there are certain other individual or intangible pub-
lic benefits which justify Federal ownership, protection, and man-
agement. These lands constitute a part of the great hinterland
whence flows the water supply upon which is based the civilization
of the western United States. What the protection and favorable
yield of this resource is worth is perhaps incalculable, but, as shown
in an earlier chapter, it is certainly very large. More tangible values
are derived from the business transactions incident to hunting, fish-
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC KANGE LANDS 467
ing, and recreational use of the land, but even these do not begin to
measure the benefits of the renewed health and the pleasure derived
from the human enjoyment of these areas.
UNIFICATION OF RANGE ADMINISTRATION IN ONE DEPARTMENT
The Forest Service, which has jurisdiction over the national for-
ests, is in the Department of Agriculture. The grazing division in
charge of the grazing districts is in the Department of the Interior.
CORRELATION IN ADMINISTRATION
Since the national forests and the grazing districts are part of a
single complex agricultural land pattern, and since both classes of
land must be integrated with the same farm and ranch lands, close
correlation and coordination is needed in range administration.
Many livestock are dependent on the national forests for summer
range and on grazing districts for winter range. The same holds
true for big game in many localities. Shortage of spring range on
national forests may be relieved by proper adjustments with graz-
ing districts. Where national forests and grazing districts adjoin,
range improvements and range administration should be so planned
as to bring about the best and most efficient utilization of their com-
bined public resources. Neither can be safely or properly considered
as a unit to be developed and administered without regard to the
other.
Proper correlation and coordination would also simplify the
rounding out of administrative units in both the national forests
and the grazing districts and facilitate the handling of intermingled
private lands. It would lead to a sounder basis for determining
grazing fees. It would result in more effective use of supervisory
and technical services and information. Since the main work period
on the two classes of land comes at different seasons of the year,
present short-term personnel could be transferred from one to the
other and thus be put on a more nearly full-time basis, resulting in
attracting better qualified employees. Finally, correlation in the
many different phases, assuming a thoroughly efficient administra-
tion, would eliminate duplication of expenditures and result in lower
cost of administration and more efficient service to the public.
Unification of administration in one department is the best answer
to the correlation problem. Further advantages in unification are
fairly obvious. It should eliminate any tendency for two agencies to
work at cross purposes on a common problem dealing with much the
same people in much the same territory. It would obviate the neces-
sity of a range user having to deal with one Department for the
summer grazing of his livestock and with another for winter grazing
and having to adapt his operation to two sets of rules and regulations.
WHY THE FOREST SERVICE IS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The Forest Service was transferred from the Department of the
Interior to the Department of Agriculture by act of Congress, Feb-
ruary 1, 1905. This action followed a recommendation of President
468 THE WESTEKN KANGE
Theodore Roosevelt, who, in a message to Congress on December 6,
1904, declared:
All the forest work of the Government should be concentrated in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, where the larger part of that work is already done, where
practically all the trained foresters of the Government are employed, where
chiefly in Washington there is comprehensive first-class knowledge of the
problems of the reserves acquired on the ground, where all problems relating to
growth from the soil are already gathered, and where all the sciences auxiliary
to forestry are at hand for prompt and effective cooperation. * * *
Since 1911, however, there have been repeated efforts to transfer
administration of the national forests back to the Department of
the Interior. No less than a dozen bills have been introduced into
Congress to this end or to transfer the national forests to a new
Department of Conservation. The most recent of these — H. R. 7712
and S. 2655 pending before the Seventy-fourth Congress — propose
to change the name Interior to "Conservation" and to pave the way
for the transfer of national-forest administration to the newly named
Department. With a public range administration agency in each
department, it becomes a matter of deciding in which Department
the work should be grouped.
In order to lead to a clear understanding of the problem and to a
sound answer to this question it is necessary first to consider what
the public forest and range lands really involve and whether or not
there is any valid cause for abandoning the reasoning which led to
the transfer of the Forest Service in 1905.
RELATION OF FEDERAL RANGE TO OTHER AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES
The national forests and grazing districts are not merely so much
range land which the Government has to protect and rent to the
Eublic, as a landlord holds a farm or range which he is willing to
it to some qualified user. The ranges, as clearly shown in an
earlier section of this report, are an inseparable part of western
agriculture. The public range resources, for the most part, merely
supplement the crops or wild forage grown on other agricultural
lands. The products of these lands enter into the regular channels
of distribution along with the products of all other agricultural lands.
In the West, also, crop growing is dependent upon irrigation. The
character and quantity of water supply in turn depends upon the
protection of the mountain watersheds — the sources of the stream
flow — which are mostly within the national forests — and upon the
protection against erosion on the grazing-district lands, problems
intimately related to the use of the land. Most of the wood supply
used on farms and ranches comes from the national forests. There
is also an intimate relationship in wildlife conservation between pub-
lic range lands and other agricultural lands. Altogether the pro-
tection and use of the resources of the public lands play a definite
and decisive part in the whole agricultural economy of the West.
How forestry and pasture management are related to other forms
of agriculture is demonstrated by the situation on other than public
lands throughout the United States. More than 2.5 million farmers
derive part of their cash income from woodlands and forests on
their farms. As shown in figure 83, the acreage in forest and
grazing land on farms is greater than the acreage of all other farm
ADMINISTKATION OF PUBLIC EANGE LANDS
469
crops. Further, the forest and grazing land on farms far exceeds
the total area of national forests, grazing districts, unreserved pub-
lic domain, and other Federal range land in the continental United
States combined.
The public forest and range lands, in view of the intimate rela-
tion with all the other problems in agriculture, are inseparable from
other lands in developing a national agricultural program. The
need for such a program has grown greater and greater, as pointed
out by Secretary Henry A. Wallace, who declared :
Ever since the end of the World War, agriculture has been groping for a
way to adjust production to demand, a way to promote sound land use and
c
NATIONAL 1 PUBLIC DOMAIN AND OTHER 1
FORESTS § FEDERALGRA2ING LANDS |
FOREST ON FARMS 1
PASTURE ON FARMS
I
CORN
HAY IwHEAT l^o^l OTHER FARM CROPS 1
) 100 200 300 400 500 600
•MILLION ACRES
FIGUBB 83.— FORESTS AND GRAZING INSEPARABLE FROM AGRICULTURE OVER
IMMENSE AREAS.
Forests and pasture on farms occupy half again as much area as the national forests and
other Federal range lands combined, and take up much more farm acreage than corn,
hay, wheat, cotton, and all other crops.
discourage land misuse, and a way to build a satisfying rural civilization
which might serve as the greatest single stabilizing factor in modern
democracy.
The Federal Government has a definite obligation to help agricul-
ture develop a sound program. The Department of Agriculture has
embarked upon such a program as one of its major undertakings.
Whatever is done must deaf with adjustments in land for farming,
grazing, forestry, and wildlife. It will involve public land as well
as privately owned farm, forest, or range land. In the West espe-
cially, public lands, in a large measure, are the very key to the needed
adjustments.
FOREST AND RANGE LAND MANAGEMENT A FUNCTION OF AGRICULTURE
The management of range and forest lands is purely and simply
a function of agriculture. It deals with soil, interrelations of soil
and water, with plants and animals, with diseases and insect pests of
plants and animals, with the planting, growing, and harvesting of
crops— in fact with all the "problems relating to growth from the
470 THE WESTERN RANGE
soil." It must rest upon the sciences and biological laws which have
to do with the soil, water, plants, and animals. It involves economic
and social problems of the farmer. Conservation of the soil and
watershed protection are based uj>on the maintenance of biological
balances of plant and animal life within their environment. Research
in biological phases is needed in all these related fields. Management
of the public land must be supplemented by these specialized bi-
ological or agricultural technics if the job is to be done adequately.
FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The Department of Agriculture as now constituted contains the
Forest Service, which has direct responsibility for the solution of
forest and forest-range problems, including administration of the na-
tional forests. In the Department of Agriculture are located also
most of the governmental agencies which have to do with the funda-
mental activities relating directly and vitally to the development of
forest and range management. Various bureaus have to do with
production adjustments and the development of better agricultural
land use. The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils deals with soil prob-
lems, chemistry of forage plants, and certain forest products; the
Soil Conservation Service, with farming practices and control meth-
ods to conserve the soil on farm lands ; the Bureau of Plant Industry,
with forage crop investigations, plant identification, and diseases of
trees and range forage plants ; the Bureau of Entomology and Plant
Quarantine, with forest and forage plant insects and pests ; the Bureau
of Animal Industry, with range livestock breeding and feeding and
control of diseases; the Biological Survey, with the conservation of
game birds and animals and the control of rodents and predatory ani-
mals on forest and range lands ; the Bureau of Agricultural Engineer-
ing, with snow surveys and other related problems; the Weather
Bureau, with climatological observations and weather forecasting
which relate to forest and range management and fire protection;
the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, with land use and production
studies; the Office of Experiment Stations, with State forest and
range research programs; and the Extension Service, with educa-
tional work and demonstrations for farmers and livestock growers in
range management and farm forestry.
The field of forest and range management is dependent on all
these lines of work in addition to the special silvical, biological, eco-
nomic, and industrial research peculiar to its own field. The admin-
istration of forest and range land must have freely available to it
and must freely use the services of the kind afforded by these related
agencies or reduce the value of its services or increase its costs, or
both.
The Department of Agriculture is the duly constituted and author-
ized agency of the Government to deal with the agriculturist. The
livestock grower and farmer recognize it as their agency and are
accustomed to dealing with it.
All of the agencies of the Department work in close cooperation
with the State agricultural colleges, agricultural experiment stations,
and State extension services in range and forestry, as well as in all
other phases of agriculture. The activities of all of these agencies
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 471
must be closely integrated in the development and carrying out
of any program of forest and range management in relation to
agriculture.
FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
The Department of the Interior, as now constituted, contains the
Grazing Division which has direct responsibility for the administra-
tion of the grazing districts. The work of the other agencies of this
Department is much less closely related to the management of forest
and range-land resources than is the work of most of the agencies of
the Department of Agriculture. The General Land Office keeps the
records of the ownership status of lands, administers the laws with
regard to the disposal of public lands, and surveys the lands as a
means of identification, and keeps records thereof; also, at present,
it handles clerical work for the Division of Grazing. The Bureau of
Indian Affairs looks after the conservation of timber and range
resources on Indian lands incidental to the promotion of the welfare
of the Indians. The Geological Survey makes geological explora-
tions, classifies lands for other than agricultural purposes, gages
streams, and prepares topographic maps. The National Park Serv-
ice manages, protects, and develops areas of outstanding scenic beauty
and other unique characteristics for exclusive use as national parks
and monuments. The Division of Investigation makes examinations
to insure compliance of existing laws administered by the Depart-
ment of Interior and for other purposes.
The Bureau of Reclamation constructs dams, canals, and power
plants for irrigation, many of them on the public lands. The Bureau
of Mines deals with conservation in the extraction and conversion of
fuels, ores, petroleum, and natural gas. The Petroleum Administra-
tive Board is engaged in conservation in the extraction of petroleum
and natural gas. The functions of these various bureaus, etc., al-
though essential in the handling of the public lands, are only remotely
if at all involved in the conservation and management of the resources
of the soil in relation to the general agricultural problems of the
Nation. These conservation functions of the Department of Inte-
rior— except that dealing with plant and animal life on national
parks and Indian reservations which is incidental to the special pur-
poses for which these reservations are set up — deal with the engineer-
ing, legal, and clerical phases of land administration and with the
chemical, physical, and engineering aspects of conservation of the
mineral or inorganic resources in extraction and conversion, and have
very little directly to do with the growing of plants and animals.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BEST FITTED TO ADMINISTER FEDERAL
FOREST AND RANGE LANDS
A basic principle of good organization in government is the group-
ing of related activities into combinations that will provide the most
efficient, systematic, and coordinated application of the available
effort to the duties to be performed. It should meet the funda-
mental test of being able to provide the means of attaining the estab-
lished objectives. The objectives in the administration of the na-
tional forests and grazing districts are conservation and the inte-
472 THE WESTERN RANGE
gration of the soil, water, plant, and animal resources with other
agricultural resources in the development of a program of agricul-
ture for the Nation. Such a synthesis must rest firmly upon the
specialized agricultural technique and close contact and cooperation
with the agriculturist.
Conservation pervades practically every activity of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture which has to do with land use or growth from
the soil. Conservation of all natural resources is, however, such a
broad social aim that it will not serve as a basis for logical functional
segregation. To associate the forest and range resources with the
mineral resources in another department would separate closely
related functions in agriculture and still would not group all con-
servation activities in one department.
To place forest and range work in a department other than the
Department of Agriculture would result in the diffusion of effort in
the development of the national program for agriculture ; in divorc-
ing the national forests and grazing districts from the closely related
technical activities of the other agencies ; in placing forest and range
work in a department with fundamentally different technics and sub-
stituting cumbersome interdepartmental action for the smooth run-
ning, informal, and expeditious procedure which now exists between
the Forest Service and other Bureaus of the Department of Agricul-
ture. It would result also in the farmer having to deal with one
department on certain forest and range matters and with another
department on all other agricultural matters; or else in maintaining
a forestry and range agency in the Department of Agriculture.
The accompanying chart (fig. 84) shows graphically the several
agencies of the two departments in relation to the federally owned
public forest and range lands. The heavy or "trunk" lines radiating
from the "hub" in this chart indicate the agencies in these two de-
partments which perform technical services in conservation which are
intimately related to the activities connected with the public forests
and ranges. The light or secondary lines indicate the more purely
clerical or less directly related functions. A far greater number
of activities would have to be handled interdepartmentally if the
Forest Service and Grazing Division were contained in the Depart-
ment of the Interior.
The best division of functions between the two departments is on
the basis of organic and inorganic resources. The organic or "renew-
able" resources are those which have to do with growth from the
soil, with plant and animal life, and the interrelationships of soil,
plants, and water. These are the resources of national forests and
the grazing districts, and logically their administration should be
in the Department of Agriculture. The inorganic or nonrenewable
resources are the minerals, coal, petroleum, or subsurface products of
the land. They largely require a different type of chemistry, engi-
neering, and conservation in use to prevent waste and destruction
and logically belong in the Department of Interior.
The national forests and grazing districts belong in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture where the resources of these lands may bfe
integrated with the agricultural resources of other lands ; where the
technical services pertaining to them are located ; where the agencies
are with which the farmer and stockman deal on all other problems
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC EANGE LANDS
473
relating to farm and crop; where cooperation with the agricultural
colleges is now centered ; where it will be possible for one committee
in Congress to handle all appropriations and other legislative mat-
ters relating to agriculture.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
NATIONAL
FORESTS
AND GRAZING
DISTRICTS
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
FIGURE 84.— THE DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURE AND INTERIOR AND FOREST
AND RANGE CONSERVATION.
Many bureaus of the Department of Agriculture are vitally and directly concerned with
the biological problems confronting forest and range conservation. On the other hand,
but few agencies of the Department of the Interior are so concerned.
PROGRAM FOR INDIAN RANGE LAND
Any sound program for the administration of Indian range lands
must comprehend the ultimate integration of the Indian into the
social and economic life of the Nation. When this has been accom-
plished there will be no further need for special guardianship of
Indian rights nor for special care of Indian property as a separate
ownership class. Meanwhile the administration of an Indian-owned
natural resource should aim first toward the maximum sustained
474 THE WESTERN RANGE
contribution to the progress of the Indian people, and, secondly, the
conservation of a resource which is of a magnitude to be of national
importance. Sustained-yield management of the range resources
will accomplish both these objectives.
RANGE CONSERVATION
In range conservation the feature which overshadows all others
is the limitation of use to the sustained annual production of the
land. The estimates of sustained-yield grazing capacity and the
recommendations for current stocking which follow are based on
the present knowledge and conditions of forage types and degree of
depletion together with all available information as to past and pres-
ent use. Further range surveys and research, together with a con-
sistent record of actual use, will undoubtedly result in modification
of present estimates of desirable stocking ; but sufficient information
is now available to indicate what broad adjustments are required.
The present grazing capacity of the 48.4 million acres 4* of Indian
range land is 5,923,000 animal-months per annum, or at the rate of
8.2 acres for each animal-month. At the present time, however, the
range is stocked to the extent of 8,049,000 animal-months, or at the
rate of about 6.0 acres for each animal-month. To bring use down
to present grazing capacity, therefore, requires a reduction of 26
percent. The grazing capacity which may be attained under good
range management within approximately the next 50 years is esti-
mated to be 9,080,000 animal-months, or a stocking of 5.3 acres to
the animal-month. This estimated future capacity is 53 percent
greater than present estimated grazing capacity.
Except in the Southwest, substantially the present range use, on
the average, can continue. Some of the reservations are overstocked
while others are understocked. The necessary reductions on some
of the reservations may be compensated for by increased use on
the others. Improved distribution of livestock, additional water
development, the application of grazing systems and other improved
range-management practices, the better consolidation of land own-
ership contemplated under the Wheeler-Howard Act, the con-
tinuance of rodent-control measures, and the further reduction in
number of worthless range horses should result in a gradual im-
provement of the ranges, make possible a small increase in livestock,
and compensate for all necessary increased use for wildlife, recrea-
tion, or other purposes. Any internal adjustments which may be
required in the allocation of grazing use can be made gradually and
with no serious inconvenience to the Indian livestock industry or
present permittees.
In Arizona and New Mexico a very material reduction in live-
stock numbers is urgently needed at an early date. Every reserva-
tion in the two States with the exception of one in New Mexico and
a small one in Arizona is more or less seriously overstocked. Ap-
propriate reductions on six of the other reservations can be made
without affecting Indian-owned livestock, since white-owned stock
constitutes a material part of the overburden on these reservations.
44 Includes a small percentage of nongrazing land in small scattered tracts within the
main bodies of range land.
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 475
The 20 million acres of range land on the remaining 10 reserva-
tions within the two States are grazed yearlong and exclusively by
Indian livestock. On some areas, to promote rapid recovery, about
three-fourths of the stock may have to be removed and generally
the ranges cannot be expected to carry over one-half of the present
livestock.
The alleviation of this situation on these reservations constitutes
the most serious and complex range problem on Indian lands. The
sheep, the land, and the Indians are faced with ruin unless the
overgrazing is stopped and the range rehabilitated; but what to do
in the meantime for the Indians who are largely dependent upon
their livestock industry presents a real difficulty.
The net progress toward permanently reducing the numbers of
stock on the range as yet has been comparatively slight. Under
the mandate of the conservation features of the Wheeler-Howard
Act the stocking must be reduced to the estimated grazing capacity
of the ranges. This should be accomplished at any early date in
order to prevent further damage to the forage resources and as a
prerequisite to success in the efforts toward erosion control.
Reduction of livestock, although absolutely essential for the con-
servation of the range and hence for the permanent welfare of the
Indians, does not solve the present economic problem for the In-
dians. A more equitable distribution of livestock and grazing privi-
leges offers a partial solution; but additional land for the Indians,
the development of supplementary industries, or a combination of
both will also be required.
The reduction of livestock to the grazing capacity of the range
is so imperative as to overshadow the needs for the practice of
other phases of range management. Until the overload on the In-
dian ranges of the Southwest is reduced, management will accom-
plish but little. However, the best possible range management
should be practiced in order to keep the reduction to a minimum.
MACHINERY OF RANGE ADMINISTRATION
The forestry branch of the Indian Service has major responsibil-
ity for the management of Indian forest and range lands, the ex-
penses for which are about $200,000 per year, exclusive of the costs
of timber sale and special work, and of clerical and similar overhead
services handled in common with other activities. A program of
adequate administration calls for an increase of $290,000, making a
total of $490,000 per year, which would make an annual average
cost of approximately 1.1 cents per acre or 0.6 cent increase over
present expenditures, exclusive of clerical work.
MULTIPLE USE
In addition to the regulation of use of forest and range lands for
timber and livestock production, the public policy and Indian wel-
fare demands that attention be given to multiple-use management
to achieve watershed protection and wildlife conservation.
Protection of watersheds is of local interest in maintaining favor-
able conditions of stream flow for irrigation control of floods and
476
THE WESTERN
in maintaining a favorable environment for fish life on the Indian
reservations. Watershed protection is also of national interest be-
cause many streams important to the West rise on or flow through
Indian lands. It is estimated that on Indian lands 22 million acres
are severely eroded and 20 million acres are materially eroded. Ade-
quate wildlife management is of special importance on Indian lands
because hunting and fishing can be made an important source of
livelihood as well as recreation to the Indians. The additional ad-
ministrative facilities for handling wildlife work, it is estimated
will cost an extra $0.001 per acre on the average.
RANGE IMPROVEMENTS
Much of the need for structural improvements on Indian lands
has been completed. During the period July 1, 1933, to March 31,
1935, 3,469 miles of range fences, 2,444 spring and well developments,
1,987 reservoirs, and 107 corrals were constructed. In addition, over
50,000 check dams for erosion control were installed. However,
much work still remains to be done. An estimate of the range im-
provements required to be constructed over a period of years on all
reservations where cattle and horses are grazed is shown in table 79.
The estimated cost of capital investments does not include an item
for control of soil erosion. A detailed study of control work needed
on the more seriously eroding Indian lands of the Southwest has
not been completed and consequently no estimate is offered at this
time of the amount or probable cost of rehabilitation work of this
kind that may be needed.
Since the capital investments proposed in table 79 are not equally
chargeable against all Indian reservations, a prorated acreage figure
is of value only for purposes of comparison. On this basis, the im-
provements, revegetation, surveys, and management plans proposed
and the more intensive plan of administration recommended would
call for an average capital investment of 18.5 cents per acre spread
over a period of years. The annual maintenance cost when the im-
provements are complete will be about 1 cent per acre. There ap-
pears to be no question that this full amount will be required in
order to meet the mandates of the Wheeler-Howard Act.
TABLE 79. — Capital investment required and annual cost of proposed 5-year
program on 48.4 million acres of available range on Indian lands
Proposed
Project
Size of
project
Total
cost
Cost per
acre1
Time to
complete
annual ex-
penditures
for 5-year
I
period
Acres
Years
Range surveys and management plans
Artificial revegetation
28, 500, 000
1, 630, 000
$210, 000
4, 645, 000
$0. 0074
s.0960
5
20
$42, 000
232, 000
Rodent control
12, 000, 000
960,000
.0198
5
192 000
Miles
Range fences
5,000
1, 500, 000
.0310
10
150,000
Number
Water developments
3,000
1, 500, 000
.0310
10
150, 000
Total investment
8,815 000
.1822
766, 000
»Oost
»Oost is $2.85 per acre actually treated.
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 477
NET RESULTS OF PROGRAM
Although the program of work and expenditures recommended for
Indian lands is considerably larger than at present no other sound
alternative seems possible. The future welfare of the American
Indians is dependent upon a sound foundation of natural resources
available in perpetuity. To the long neglect of this phase of Indian
guardianship is chargeable much of the present sad plight of the
Indians of the Southwest. To this neglect is chargeable also much
of the cost that is needed properly to improve the resources. A
good start has already been made on the Indian lands but, unless
supplemented with the necessary additional work, the process of
reconstructing and maintaining a suitable environment for the In-
dian will be too slow and will lead to greater economic difficulties.
STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL RANGE LANDS
The 17 Western States own an aggregate of approximately 58.2
million acres of available range land within the range area as de-
fined in this report. This land is the undisposed portion of the
grants to the respective States by the Federal Government45 together
with lands which have been acquired by foreclosure of State loans
and, in certain of the States, by reversion of tax-delinquent lands.
In addition, counties and municipalities own an aggregate of not
less than 7 million acres of available range land, most of which has
been acquired through foreclosure on tax delinquency. These lands
represent a considerable part of the western range resource. Up to
the present the State and local public range has been administered
with sale or lease as the chief objective — a policy which has failed to
conserve the resources. It is estimated that the grazing capacity
has been depleted approximately one-half from virgin condition and
that about 28 million acres are severly eroded and an equal amount
is materially eroded.
STATE LANDS
BESUI/TS OP PAST AND PRESENT POLICIES
As already pointed out in an earlier section of this report, land*
were granted to the States for the benefit of schools and other insti-
tutions and are held in trust by the State governments. The organic
legislation usually provided that, as the lands are disposed of, the
proceeds must be safely invested as trust funds. Provision is made
in many of the grants also that any loss to the fund through unwise
investment by the State must be restored from the general taxes,
in at least a number of States, lands must be put up for sale when-
ever an offer equal to the appraised value is made. This policy was
adopted at a time when the general conception of public-land ad-
ministration was one of disposal. There was little if any conception
that the grant lands should be retained and administered from the
standpoint of income from the sustained yield.
The grant lands which remain are little suited for private owner-
ship at the price for which they may be purchased.48 Where the pro-
46 Texas retained all of its land when it was admitted to the Union.
48 In some of the Western States the organic legislation stipulates a minimum price
at which institutional grant lands may be sold. Lands having a value less than the
minimum price have remained in State ownership.
478 THE WESTEKN RANGE
visions of the grants and the present State constitution and State
laws make it mandatory to offer the land for sale, the establishment
of an effective management administration is discouraged if not pre-
vented. But even in the States where the land agencies have greater
latitude, little effort has been made to undertake management. In
those States where tax-delinquent lands revert to the State or the
State has foreclosed on mortgaged lands, the laws generally provide
that the land must be disposed of by sale insofar as it is possible to
satisfy the lien against the land.
One of the chief reasons for lack of effort to apply management
or obtain changes in basic laws that would authorize really effective
management of State range land has been the character of the ad-
ministrative agencies. The land-disposal tradition early became
established and the initiative to change it has been lacking.
Inmost of the States only a portion of the scattered sections speci-
fied in the land grants have been blocked up through lieu selections.
The bulk of the lands now owned consists of scattered tracts so
isolated from other State lands as to make management extremely
difficult.
The urge to obtain maximum current income from the land has
encouraged obtaining maximum rental from leased land and has dis-
couraged t expenditures for range conservation. This, in turn, to-
gether with the lack of security of tenure to the lessee, has en-
couraged him to overstock the land in order to derive returns com-
mensurate with the price he has been required to pay.
The isolated character of the tracts, where the bulk of the adjoin-
ing land is unregulated public domain, has resulted in no income to
the States from much of their land. Utah perhaps represents an
extreme case. In that State only 130,000 acres out of a total owner-
ship of over 2 million acres was leased during the period 1923 to
1932, and yielded an average annual income of only $16,058 (150).
The major portion of the land is scattered throughout what was for-
merly unregulated public domain (now being included in grazing
districts) in isolated tracts of 640 acres, which stockmen used free
of charge in common with the Federal land because the State was
unable to extract a fee or prevent trespass. The State lands were
thus depleted along with the open public domain.
In parts of Utah and the other States where, through rental of
the isolated State lands, it was possible for stockmen to control large
areas of surrounding public domain, the returns to the State for the
land actually leased have been higher than normal because the con-
trol of open public domain enhanced the rental price of the State
land. However, depletion of the range in the State properties has
usually accompanied the high rental prices.
POLICIES DUE FOB A CHANGE
There are several reasons why a reconsideration of the policies
for State range lands may be ^ expected. The people of the "West
as a whole are coming to realize that further disposal is unsound
and only adds to the unfavorable ownership situation. This view
is encouraged by the action at last on the part of the Federal Gov-
ernment to refrain from further disposal and place at least a part of
the remaining open public domain under regulation under the pro-
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 479
visions of the Grazing Act. This will also facilitate State action
on isolated tracts of State land surrounded by unregulated public
land. The wider practice of conservation on Federal lands un-
doubtedly would encourage action on State lands. Many of the
beneficiary State institutions are beginning also to take an interest
in sustained income from the land in place of high immediate returns
and an uncertain future.
Just how far each State will be able to go, however, in the better
administration of its lands and continue to derive an income for
the beneficiary institution will depend upon the sustained pro-
ductivity of the land and the economy of administration. As already
shown for Federal lands, income from much of the public range
cannot be expected to exceed the cost of administration and adequate
range management. When this is the case the beneficiary institution
must face the problem of how to obtain the funds to replace those at
present being derived from the lease of land. The necessity of some
alternative appears obvious because continuation of excessive rentals
which result in further deterioration will eventuate in a permanent
loss of income. Each State will need to study its individual prob-
lems carefully and decide upon the course which will result in the
highest benefit to the public interest in the long run.
PEOPOSED METHODS AND PRACTICES FOR ADMINISTRATION
There are several methods of administration which might be fol-
lowed on State-range land. One possibility is to continue to lease
the land with stipulations in the lease contracts as to degree of stock-
ing, seasons of use, and other requirements as to proper management.
Inspection and enforcement of terms of a contract under such a
system where the land is scattered in thousands of small tracts, would
be expensive and impracticable in most cases. This plan would
hardly be applicable except in case of lessees who may be relied upon
to use the range properly.
Another possibility, where isolated tracts of State land are sur-
rounded by or adjacent to Federal range land under management,
is to enter into cooperative agreement with the Federal agency to
manage the State land along with the Federal land and pay the
proceeds, after deduction of a reasonable cost for administration, to
the State. Such an arrangement is already in effect for State lands
in some of the national forests and offers real promise in parts of
naany States.
A third plan consists of the States blocking up their holdings into
tracts of a sufficient size to warrant establishing an administrative
agency. Such consolidation of State land, through exchange for
Federal land, is authorized for State land within national forests
and grazing districts where this plan is followed.
Perhaps no one of the three systems could be made general in any
one State. It might be found the most feasible in particular States
to handle some land under one system and some under another. The
system to follow will depend upon what is most applicable under
the particular circumstances.
One of the big tasks in the management of State range lands is
reductions in the present use. The present grazing capacity is esti-
mated, based on available information and comparison with similar
480 THE WESTERN RANGE
Federal lands, to be at the rate of 5.66 acres per animal-month of
use. Present stocking, however, is nearer 2.8 acres per head. This
shows the need for a reduction in present use of approximately
50 percent. The grazing capacity, say in 50 years, with improvement
under good range management, it is estimated, will be at the rate
of 3.3 acres per animal-month of use, or an increase of T0.6 percent
over present estimated grazing capacity. The capacity figures, of
course, will vary from place to place. The figure given is an average
for all State lands.
Professional management. — The change to resource management
will require a change in administrative set-up in most States. Basic
legislation should be enacted declaring that permanent and con-
structive management shall be the guiding principle in administra-
tion of the land. There should be a close correlation between the
land offices and the State agricultural agencies; or better, the ad-
ministration should be placed under the agricultural agency. This is
necessary in order to insure the application of sound professional
management and to get away from the viewpoint of maximum rev-
enue for the present where it results in impairment of the sustained
productive capacity of the land.
Multiple use. — The principle of multiple-use management should
be applied on State range lands in order to derive the fullest benefits
from all the resources. Over 4 million acres of forest ranges is in-
volved. Watershed protection and propagation of wildlife is a re-
sponsibility of the State on State lands. Where wildlife produc-
tion and recreational use — on which there seldom is an excise
charge — will reduce other income to the beneficiary institution, some
means of reimbursement from the State game or general tax funds
should be developed.
Integration with agriculture. — The State range lands should be
coordinated with other agricultural resources in order to obtain
the highest use from all the land, as is provided in Federal range-
land administration.
Cost of administration and improvements. — Cost of administration
and construction of improvements will vary with local conditions.
It is estimated, based on experiences on the national forests, that,
for all the Western States, the average cost for a proper qualified
professional administration capable of applying the necessary tech-
nical range management will cost not less than $0.0116 per acre
for use by livestock. The necessary additional cost for wildlife
administration should be paid out of State game funds.
The following average cost per acre for resource surveys, man-
agement plans, improvements, etc., is estimated to be needed :
Range surveys and management plans $0.0053
Kange fences . (M80
Water development . 0133
Revegetation and restoration (acres actually treated) 3.05
Rodent control (acres actually treated) .08
These charges would be necessary whether or not the lands are
blocked, since if left in scattered tracts the States should pay a
pro-rata share along with the other agencies whose lands share in
the benefit from the improvements. As pointed out in a later section
of this report, the States should also undertake a share in the research
ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC RANGE LANDS 481
problem necessary to solve many of the problems in range man-
agement.
Much of the county and municipal land is leased or rented and
some of it is a no mail's land open to free use. Practically all of
it is badly depleted and becoming worse. The county ownership
is being added to continually in those States where tax- delinquent
lands finally revert to the counties. The appalling situation being
created by tax delinquency on range and dry-farm lands has been
discussed in an earlier section of this report.
The long time required in most States before governmental agen-
cies finally take title to such lands makes it difficult to determine
how large an acreage will eventually pass on to public ownership,
but it is generally recognized to be large. One of the chief prob-
lems in this connection is to speed up the process whereby lands
which have been abandoned and are definitely known to be unfit for
private ownership will become public property. During the inter-
vening period these areas are subject to all sorts of abuse. Shorten-
ing the period of recapture would reduce the extent of injury and
shorten the time before rehabilitation could be started.
The extent to which there is a place for county or municipal own-
ership and management of range land unsuited to private owner-
ship will depend upon circumstances in individual cases. The
larger, stronger counties or cities may be able to undertake the work
on a satisfactory scale. Others will probably not be able to set up
properly qualified agencies to handle such properties adequately,
at least on a permanent basis, and may decide to turn the land
over to the State or the Federal Government in order that it may
be managed by agencies better prepared to do the work, under such
terms or reimbursement as are found proper. One important pos-
sibility for counties or municipalities deciding to regain range land
is to enter into cooperative agreement with State or Federal agencies
to administer the land along with other public land and share in
the receipts. In some instances lessees doubtless can be found who
will utilize the land under proper restrictions. Action will vary
widely, depending upon particular circumstances, but definite pro-
vision should be made to prevent further deterioration and to re-
store the forage values.
LEGISLATION NEEDED
The proposed program for the several classes of public lands
will require certain modifications of present legislation and some
new legislation, both Federal and State. These needs are sum-
marized in a later section.
64946—36 32
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP— LAND AND LIVESTOCK
By GEORGE STEWART, Senior Forest Ecologist, Interinountain Forest and Range
Experiment Station; W. G. KOOGLEB, Senior Range Examiner, Southwestern
Region ; and W. R. CHAPLINE, Chief, Division of Range Research
PRESENT CONDITION OF PRIVATE LANDS
The continental United States contains 1,903,216,640 acres of land,
of which 975 million acres is in the western range region. Approxi-
mately 721 million acres of the latter area consists of usable and
available range land ; 376 million acres is held in private ownership.
These lands passed from public to private ownership through a series
of land-disposal laws, which imposed no restriction on their use,
either direct or implied. In the 50 to 80 years of occupancy, and
during the period of transfer to private ownership, both the char-
acter of the original cover and the productive capacity of the land
have been greatly changed.
The luxuriant forage supply of the virgin range is now depleted
until, on the average, these 376 million acres of private land pro-
duce only 49 percent as much feed as originally. Approximately 88
percent have been depleted in excess of 25 percent. Excessive stock-
ing prevails on most of the area. Watershed values are not pro-
tected and inadequate water supply, abnormal erosion, and floods
constitute a menace to farms and communities. Much of the area
is suffering from economic instability. These adverse social and
economic conditions require correction. The solution of the problem
rests mutually with the private owner and governmental agencies.
WHAT PRIVATE AND PUBLIC AGENCIES CAN Do TO STABILIZE PRIVATE
OWNERSHIP
The stabilization of private range-land enterprises will require
the united effort of landowners and of various public agencies.
Even with the transfer of 125 million acres of range and crop lands
to public ownership, as previously recommended, the total range land
in private ownership will still remain high. To insure the sort of
private ownership which will meet its responsibilities, many of the
existing disadvantages must be removed through a consciously
planned program. Such a program involves: (1) Recognition of
the stewardship of land ; (2) solution of the submarginal land prob-
lem; (3) development of socially sound economic range units or their
conversion into profitable ones; (4) reduction of inflationary land
values; (5) practice of range management, animal husbandry, and
game management; (6) control of production; (7) overcoming
marketing handicaps; (8) improved credit facilities; (9) more
equitable taxation; and (10) research and extension.
483
484 THE WESTERN RANGE
STEWARDSHIP OF LAND
Since the establishment of the first colonies, America has pioneered
through a vast empire and conquered a wilderness in the process.
Traditionally, the desire to open up virgin territory, creating larger
economic opportunity and independence, has been a prime motive
of agricultural development in its migration from east to west.
History of this country reflects the eternal quest for greater oppor-
tunity and more fertile fields. Essentially, Americans have re-
sponded to this urge and have never been rooted fast in any one
place. Under these conditions it is not surprising that the concept
of stewardship of the land has been largely undeveloped.
Another reason why we, as a nation, have failed to subscribe to
any theory of stewardship of the land has been the firm belief that
natural resources were unlimited, and that one could move from
place to place at will and untrammeled. The tradition that the
owner of the land has unrestricted and inalienable rights has been
woven into our legal concept of land ownership. On the other
hand, the desire to hold and to build up landed property in one
family from generation to generation is lacking. Land laws have
been so administered as to pass much land from public ownership
that private ownership cannot carry. Rugged individualism of the
pioneer landholder has been in itself another contributory factor.
The point of view has prevailed that land is a temporary source
of income and that ranch and range may be sold to the highest
bidder if the price is right. The exodus of Iowa farmers to southern
California, when land values in Iowa reached inflationary or "boom"
figures, is an excellent illustration of how weakly rooted American
farmers are in any region or on any piece of land.
Before much progress can be made in restoring depleted ranges
and in maintaining their productivity, the stewardship concept of
land must become more firmly woven into our national philosophy.
Many trends in that direction are evident. Only when it is gener-
ally recognized that the natural resources are exhaustible, that soils
can be dissipated, and that no other great tracts of fertile lands are
open to conquest, can appreciation be capitalized that private owner-
ship carries with it implied responsibility in land ownership. This
trend is reflected in the movement that recognizes community in-
terests in land which here and there has expressed itself in 'local
laws regulating the use of lands. The latest outstanding expression
of the stewardship concept is the development of the land-planning
machinery in many States. It is predicated on the basic premise
that mutuality of public and private interest exists, demanding self-
imposed restrictons to preserve and develop the resources of the
land.
The private owner must accept this challenge and cooperate in
local and regional organizations which seek to develop sound land
policies and the machinery to effectuate them. Without the hearty
support of the body politic, no land planning can be imposed by
governmental agencies. Machinery, which the private owner can
skillfully use in this movement, already exists in such organizations
as the Farm Bureau, the Grange, cooperatives, and similar groups.
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 485
The public must recognize that acceptance of stewardship of agri-
cultural and range lands will develop but slowly and weakly until
agriculture is given a fair opportunity to market its products at
levels above the cost of production. Onerous taxes and burdensome
land-carrying charges discourage the ownership of farm or range
lands. The public must also provide the legal machinery and in-
strumentalities for collective action in zoning and land planning
which will designate areas that can best be held in private owner-
ship, lands the ownership of which is now doubtful, and lands that
must be retained in permanent public ownership.
SUBMARGINAL LANDS
A large area of range lands is so handicapped by low productive
value or other disadvantages as to render these tracts submarginal
for permanent private ownership, although they may possess attrac-
tive potentialities for range use under public ownership. Lands of
such low quality, that their income is inadequate to cover the costs
of private ownership, must ultimately be classed as submarginal.
However, lands submarginal in character may prove temporarily
profitable during very favorable price cycles, only to revert to their
true status with the return of average prices, or when other unfavor-
able conditions develop.
Private owners have frequently failed to recognize the submar-
ginal character of their holdings and have hung on doggedly against
odds; eventually, however, they invariably succumb. The most
difficult situation that arises is where the livestock producer attempts
to maintain lands in private ownership whose carrying charges be-
come so burdensome, with returns so uncertain, that his available
capital is practically exhausted by indebtedness.
The sterling ability of the pioneer to struggle against difficulties
is futile when an attempt is made to stem the overwhelming odds
encountered on such lands. Difficult as it may be, the individual
personally must recognize the limitations in the private ownership
of low-productivity land.
Definite responsibilities accrue to the public regarding submargi-
nal lands, especially if their condition adversely affects watershed
protection, wildlife, recreation, or other public values. In many
instances the toll of severe depletion has metamorphosed many tracts
from desirable range lands into financial stalemates. Vast areas,
depleted in excess of 50 percent and now submarginal, require re-
habilitation. In many cases, the private owner is unable to bear the
cost of such improvement. If the public has to pay the rehabilita-
tion costs, it should undoubtedly reap such benefits as may obtain.
The public is not conferring a favor on the stockman, who is try-
ing to operate on privately owned low-value land, foreordained to
failure, by extending to him special financial assistance and other
subsidies, except as a temporary expedient. It would be preferable
for the public to acquire the land and permit its use under such
supervised management as will restore values and sustain produc-
tion. Stockmen, who own productive ranch property which can be
used to advantage with the publicly acquired range land, should be
accorded opportunity to use such acquired land under a preferential
system similar to that now applied on the national forests. Accord-
ingly, submarginal lands should be passed to public ownership as
486 THE WESTERN RANGE
rapidly as possible. Every possible means should be utilized to
prevent submarginal lands now in public ownership from falling
into private hands and further complicating an already unsound
situation.
These lands cannot be taken over immediately. It may require
up to 50 years for the entire 125 million acres of submarginal range
and dry-farm land of the West to be acquired. It would be regret-
table if a conscious program could not be undertaken promptly
and carried forward aggressively, because of the waste of resources,
human effort, relief costs, and other features that prevail under
present conditions. It is a big problem, the answer to which is not
yet clear. Three possibilities present themselves: (1) The tax de-
linquency route; (2) gifts; and (3) outright purchase or exchange.
An unknown area is already tax delinquent and can be immedi-
ately taken over by counties and States. Several million acres of
such submarginal land have already reverted in this manner. More
will become tax delinquent as owners recognize its true submarginal
character, or as their financial resources become exhausted.
Gifts to public agencies will undoubtedly come primarily from
corporations and other large land owners. A considerable acreage
is held by corporations which are unable to realize a profit or in
some instances even taxes from the lands. In certain localities, such
as the red desert in Wyoming, alternate sections of low-value lands
within a railroad land grant are leased or owned, making it possible
to utilize the intermingled public land. When fees are charged
for grazing the public lands the incentive for paying relatively high
lease costs will be removed, and the true value of these lands will be
disclosed. Undoubtedly it would be to the advantage of owners
and the public if most of these low-value lands could be given out-
right to public agencies qualified to administer them in the public
interest. In most instances, however, the grant of lands to public
agencies will probably be conditional, permitting the utilization of
the resources without cost for a limited period.
Despite these means of acquisition, the bulk of the lands which
should be acquired will have to be through purchase or exchange.
Where relatively high-value range lands are available as scattered
public holdings there would be certain advantages accruing to the
public from the exchange of these for a larger acreage of privately
owned low-value lands. Here again only a rather limited acreage
can be obtained in this manner. A large part of the submarginal
lands that should be purchased will not be recognized as such by
the present owners. The many 640-acre homesteads, owned but
abandoned and held in the hope that a sale can be consummated,
clearly indicate the lack of appreciation of their submarginal char-
acter. Where the owner is willing to use his own capital to finance
retention of such lands the public need not be concerned in im-
mediate purchase so long as the public interest is not endangered
by misuse.
Pending purchase of lands, the private owner might waive man-
agement to the Government and in return might be permitted to
stock the range to grazing capacity of the land or be given such
fees as are collected, less administrative costs. This privilege
should be exercised only as a temporary expedient.
PKIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 487
Some of the better lands will continue in private ownership until
the public needs for the land become more acute. This will hold
true especially of lands that may later be needed for enlarged
wildlife and recreational requirements of the future. The public
could well afford to aid in the rehabilitation of such lands pending
the time when it will assume ownership.
All of these various contingencies stress the need for adequate
classification of range lands to determine which areas should revert
to public ownership and which parts or classes should be given
priority in purchase in order to aid in the solution of the sub-
marginal land problem.
DEVELOPMENT OF SOUND ECONOMIC UNITS
On some range lands which have sufficient productivity to justify
private ownership, oversettlement has occurred on such a scale that
many of the units are so small that production returns are inade-
quate even for satisfactory living standards. This is a real prob-
lem in many parts of the West, where communities have been pro-
moted, which, however, lack adequate opportunities for local resi-
dents to gain satisfactory livelihood from the combination of crop
and range agriculture. Range lands are limited and crop lands are
also either limited or are otherwise incapable of producing the
forage or cash crops necessary to make all the ventures economi-
cally sound.
In contrast to these small units, some of the unusually large out-
fits have failed to produce satisfactory net returns. Other large
outfits make inefficient use of irrigable lands and induce other unde-
sirable social aspects.
When all sources of income including those from livestock,
crops, and outside labor are sufficient to maintain a family in ordi-
nary times, at a reasonable standard of living, the farm or ranch
may be considered to constitute a family-sized economic unit. This
is a highly elusive entity, because it varies widely with the combi-
nations of livestock and other enterprises commonly found in a
locality as well as with the standard of living recognized as satis-
factory in a given community.
Granting a more or less definite standard of living, a ranch which
may yield good returns at one phase of the price cycle frequently
fails to pay when prices slump. Probably the minimum unit that
can be called satisfactory is one which will support a family in
reasonable circumstances during normal periods and which will
sustain itself without public relief during economic depressions.
Although many variations in the size and character of ranches
that are economically or socially unsound occur and an integration
of one class into another is common, three rather typical situations
appear throughout the West: (1) The undersized cash crop-live-
stock unit; (2) the small livestock unit; and (3) the unusually
large outfit primarily developed for the production of livestock.
If adequate range were available the solution would not be so diffi-
cult. Practically all range areas are now congested; the resultant
forage depletion has accentuated the situation and increased the
difficulties of correction.
488 THE WESTEEN KANGE
UNDEOEISIZED CASH CROP-LIVESTOCK UNITS
Diversification, such as results from the combination of cash crops
and livestock production, facilitates economic soundness. Where
soils are productive, climate favorable, and markets reasonably ac-
cessible, particularly if irrigated land is included, diversified
ranches are economically sound. A family-sized unit, both balanced
and diversified, is reasonably secure if the range livestock enter-
prise is of fair size and an income also results from cash crops. The
diversified crop-livestock unit has perhaps the best chance of any in
the West of becoming both economic and permanent. However,
many ranches which now derive their income from the combination
of cash crops and livestock operations are unsound, either because
of inherent small size or lack of proper balance in the operation.
Some of these ranches are uneconomic because of their extremely
small size, having only a limited acreage of cropland and a few
head of cattle, sheep, or goats. The herd or flock is too small to
furnish a suitable income. It is either impossible to graze additional
livestock on the range or the cropland is so restricted that sufficient
supplementary feed cannot be provided. In most instances the
amount of cropland is the limiting factor.
Where such small farm-livestock units, which are now unprofit-
able, are located close to large centers of population and the crop-
land is suitable, a shift to production of truck or other specialized
crops might make them economic. Under such conditions the prin-
cipal income, including much of the food for the family, will come
from the farm, range being used only for grazing milk cows or a
few other domestic animals, yielding a little ready cash. Futher-
more, where small units are so located that the owner can obtain
a part of his income from outside labor, many otherwise unsound
establishments can undoubtedly be maintained. If specialty crops
are grown or other labor has to be performed, a little care can be
given livestock run on the range. Livestock run at will, however,
seldom yield a profit and ordinarily damage public interests. Some
cooperative plan for the effective management of the livestock while
the owner is busy at other work or is engaged in crop production
on his farm is essential. Although cooperative management succeeds
well in Utah, it has not worked out as satisfactorily in other
localities.
Lack of social and economic soundness among other crop-livestock
ranches ordinarily emanates from such features as the attempt to
graze more livestock than the range will support, necessitating
forage-crop production on land that could better be used for more
valuable crops; inadequate provision for management of the live-
stock grazing on the range, thereby limiting production returns ; and,
in some instances, from a total lack of livestock or an inadequate
number of range animals to properly balance feed production from
harvested crops. In the majority of these cases the solution is
obvious.
In the case of units which need more range livestock in order to
form properly balanced operations, the purchase of additional live-
stock already on the range may be necessary. Nothing would be
gained by further congesting overstocked ranges with shipped-in
livestock.
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 489
In some instances, public range may be made available to supple-
ment crop production on these diversified ranches by reductions in
the numbers of livestock of large outfits already grazing on the
public lands. Considering that practically all public ranges are
now overstocked and depleted and that a high percentage of such
reductions as can effectively be made within the next few years will
undoubtedly be needed to give the range forage plants the oppor-
tunity to develop vigorous growth, the possibilities of improving
the situation on these diversified units in any such manner are ex-
ceedingly slim unless they have livestock already grazing on the
public range. In some localities, however, immediate assistance
can be given.
Where such adjustments are impossible, the ultimate public good
will be best served by the gradual movement of families from such
unprofitable units to suitable irrigation projects, under some similar
irogram to that now being conducted in various parts of the West
y the Resettlement Administration.
6MAI.L LIVESTOCK UNITS
In high altitudes, on alkaline or other unproductive soils, on
slopes too steep for cultivation, and far from railroads, ranches
have small chance for cash-crop production. Under such conditions
crop land can best be used for forage-crop production. Livestock
graze on private or public ranges part of the year and are fed hay
and other home-grown ranch roughage during winter and other
critical periods. Many such ranches have an insufficient number of
livestock to furnish a satisfactory income, although the available
range and other forage resources are used to the maximum; this
results in a serious social and economic problem. In some localities,
one possibility for improving conditions is to distribute the grazing
privileges of the larger outfits on public lands among the smaller.
If this would expand the more suitable of the smaller outfits suf-
ficiently to assure a reasonable standard of living for most of them,
such a plan, where possible, would undoubtedly be desirable. How-
ever, in many instances, the number of small unprofitable units is
so great that to distribute the grazing more or less evenly among
them would simply reduce all to an unsound basis. Therefore, ad-
justments in public-land grazing privileges should be made, not with
the idea of endeavoring to sustain all units, but rather to facilitate
the maintenance of the number that are economically justified in
each locality.
Under such^ conditions some ranches have expanded into units
of economic size through consolidations or other means. This is
especially true in the foothill region of central California where,
many of the original 160-acre homesteads are now combined into
units of from 2,000 to 4,000 acres.
^ Undoubtedly, the tendency will be for the better-managed out-
fits to absorb those operated with less skill, and thereby gradually
result in fewer and larger units, better adapted to furnish reasonable
living standards. The inescapable fact must be recognized that
there is insufficient range land adequately to accommodate the de-
mands of all the existing livestock producers and their families, even
490 THE WESTERN RANGE
if the large ranch units were dissembled and redistributed. The
general trend, in which the smallest outfits are finally absorbed by
the medium-sized units, will partially ameliorate conditions. When
absorption comes as a result of bankruptcy and foreclosure, consid-
erable suffering, on the part of those who are closed out, is entailed.
The planned removal of part of the families on small units to irri-
gated areas or to other subsistence projects should greatly decrease
the losses and mitigate the pangs of pauperism. A responsibility
rests on the private owner of such uneconomic units to accept these
trends in adjustment.
As is the case in the small crop-livestock units, where supplemental
work for owners of small livestock ranches can be made available
on public land or otherwise, such supplemental work should facil-
itate the maintenance of many more successful homes than would
otherwise be possible. A great deal of the work on fire suppression,
improvement, and development of the national forests is handled by
owners of this class of ranch. This supplemental income favors
the retention of these otherwise unprofitable units and simultaneously
provides a local, immediately available, labor supply. An extensive
permanent program of conservation and development on range and
forest lands is justified for this express social purpose. Such a
program can take the form of tree planting, timber-stand improve-
ment, artificial reseeding, watershed improvement, and the construc-
tion and maintenance of essential physical developments, including
fences, water developments, and the like.
UNUSUALLY LARGE LIVESTOCK UNITS
Another situation exists, as in parts of Nevada for example, and,
to a certain extent, in other sections of the West, where large oper-
ators have acquired irrigable lands along streams, thus obtaining
a practical monopoly of large areas of public range lands. These
large outfits are often economically sound and the personnel employed
in their operation enjoy reasonably satisfactory living conditions.
Where such large outfits make inefficient use of irrigable lands and
induce undesirable social aspects, such as shifting labor and men
without families, homes, or moral anchorage (£), the public would
benefit by such adjustments as would improve conditions. Although
the process of such attainment is yet indefinite, land-planning
agencies might appropriately consider ways and means of bringing
about a gradual adjustment, which will enable the range and crop
lands in such situations to support a larger number of successful
home units.
Economic stress of recent years has caused the breaking down of
a number of the especially large outfits of the West into smaller
units, each of which can now be accorded the individual managerial
attention essential for success. This is undoubtedly a desirable
trend. A gradual reduction in the numbers of livestock grazed by
large outfits on public lands to facilitate the development of more
successful home units will also redound to the public interest.
No attempt has been made to present all situations which tend to
develop or perpetuate uneconomic units. Ranches differ radically
in nature and extent, in area of land used, in size of herd, and in
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 491
total investment. The ability of these various-sized units to main-
tain satisfactory social and economic conditions and to enable the
private owner to assume the responsibilities which the public has
a right to expect from private ownership, varies greatly between
regions and even within the same region. The situations must be
considered from the local, regional, and national aspects and pro-
grams developed to meet the specific conditions.
Economic distress and maladjustments, because of the prevalence
of uneconomic units, vary from region to region, but the problem
is common throughout the western range States. Readjustments can-
not be accomplished abruptly. Aid must be provided in the form
of public work as a temporary or permanent expedient, to absorb
the shocks of necessary economic changes.
In the western range States where public range is available, either
in national forests or grazing districts, the Government can facilitate
the correction of many uneconomic units: (1) By preference in the
use of public grazing lands, such as is given the resident home
builder on national forests, and (2) by preference in the opportunity
to obtain work on the public property. Governmental agencies can
also provide reasonable credit facilities through which capable small
livestock operators can secure funds to buy out other small-unit
operators, thus expediting the build-up of more economic units.
Considerable increase in grazing capacity may be anticipated on
ranges through better management. This would improve the situa-
tion because: (1) A smaller area of range lands will then be needed
to support a given number of livestock; (2) these livestock will pro-
duce more young and make better gains and therefore yield larger
returns; and (3) the greater feed assurance from the improved
ranges will facilitate stabilization by reducing fluctuations. Thus,
available ranges will serve the ranches which remain more effectively.
The economic family unit of the future will probably be a com-
bination crop-livestock enterprise, in which the use of public land — -
if any — by private owners of livestock may be the integrating bal-
ance. Small outfits will undoubtedly be able to reduce costs through
cooperative effort by using the public range in common as already
occurs on many existing community ranges in the national forests.
The ideal combination of low-value lands in public ownership and
high-quality lands in private ownership should be very effective in
stabilizing livestock production and crop-agriculture. It is un-
likely that any single answer will suffice for all regions and condi-
tions, and much more factual information must be available before a
definite solution can be offered for a particular locality.
INFLATIONARY LAND VALUES
Inflationary land values cannot be continued indefinitely. The
sooner debtors and creditors alike accept deflation in speculative
land values and write off fictitious "paper" values, the sooner will
livestock producers be able to meet the land-carrying charges of
private ownership. Stable private ownership is easily upset by too
easy credit and boom psychology ; difficult though it be, bankers and
land owners must eternally be on guard to thwart it.
Public agencies, through credit facilities are now in a better posi-
tion than ever before to direct and control the stabilization of land
492 THE WESTERN RANGE
values. The Federal Farm Credit Administration, through its many
subdivisions, can bring about loan policies which will prevent fore-
closures of well-managed outfits, heavily mortgaged for depression
periods, but fundamentally sound under normal conditions. State
and Federal research agencies have an inherent responsibility to for-
mulate specifications by which land values may be related to actual
earning capacity and which should markedly influence land trans-
actions and the viewpoints of private credit agencies, the buyer, and
the seller of lands.
RANGE MANAGEMENT, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY, AND GAME MANAGEMENT
A large number of stockmen have, for one reason or another, failed
to practice good range management; as a result, the forage shows
an average depletion of about 51 percent. Conditions have led stock-
men to overstock during boom periods and to hold their livestock
during periods of deflation. Frequently, only partial use has been
made of good animal-husbandry practices to reduce costs and to
improve livestock quality. Opportunities for game management
have seldom been considered.
WHAT THE PRIVATE OWNER CAN DO
The insidious process of range deterioration has "crept up" on the
range owner. No pronounced improvements can be effected until
the range-land owner learns to recognize some of the earmarks of
this process on his range and the resultant unfavorable conditions
produced. Unless the owner understands that the key forage plants
are disappearing, that the rich topsoil is being washed away, and
that gullies are devastating valuable lands, no opportunity is
afforded for corrective measures, even though he has felt the severe
sting of markedly reduced income. The livestock producer must also
recognize that the range can be improved and ultimately built up to
some approximation of its original forage capacity only through
proper range management. The most effective way to assure im-
provement is to determine the objectives toward which management
should be pointed, the necessary action to carry out these objectives,
and ways and means to secure accomplishment. In short, it means
the development and application of range-management plans.
One obvious reform which the private owner should institute
immediately is to correct excessive stocking where it prevails on his
lands, either by reductions in numbers grazed or by such seasonal or
other changes as will accomplish the purpose. In most cases, such
action would produce meat and other animal products at greater
profit, partly through better calf and lamb crops and reduction of
losses, partly by more efficient animal growth, and partly by curtail-
ment of supplemental feed requirements, already demonstrated as
costing much more than range forage. Failure to correct overstock-
ing will cause the undermining and ultimate collapse of the range-
forage resource upon which the perpetuity of the operation depends.
Unquestionably, the private owner can improve his status by bet-
ter breeding, feeding, and other animal-husbandry practices. Many
of the more progressive stockmen use good quality bulls and rams,
limit their breeding seasons, and provide adequate supplemental
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 493
feeds and necessary concentrates to offset low-quality range feed and
present lack of necessary mineral nutrients on the range. However,
a great many stockmen still use sires of medium quality and on some
ranges scrub bulls even now prevail. In the Southwest, bulls are
often permitted to run with cows yearlong which impairs their
breeding ability and calves are not uniformly developed at time for
sale. Aged cows and ewes are not culled as promptly as advisable.
Seldom is adequate feed available to satisfy demands during un-
usually severe winters and periodic droughts.
Adequate use of supplements is, of course, essential. Supple-
mental feeding, however, is more costly than range forage. It is
important, therefore, to coordinate the use of range and other feeds
so as to reduce the winter maintenance costs as much as practicable.
The carry-over of a reserve of hay or other roughage is likewise
necessary in Western ranch operations because of drastic climatic
fluctuations with reduced range feed in dry years and deep snows
during severe winters. It is at such times that feed prices become
exorbitant, and unless a reserve supply is available to meet such con-
tingencies, the profits for several years may be wiped out in a single
season.
The solution of these animal-husbandry problems appears more or
less obvious, still, they persist. Adoption of better practices would
greatly aid in increasing calf and lamb crops and improving quality
and salability of the animals. This in turn would make it possible
for owners to obtain equivalent or even greater income with fewer
livestock and thus would assure more conservative grazing which
would reduce the need for heavy supplemental feeding every year.
Included in the range area is over 25 million acres of privately
owned land capable of producing commercial timber crops. Under
proper management livestock can ordinarily be grazed without
jeopardizing the use of the land for timber growing. Timber grow-
ing on this land, in many instances, will be more profitable but graz-
ing leases can be made to help carry current costs of protection,
taxes, etc. On the 24 million additional acres of poorer forest land
suitable for grazing which is in private ownership there may be
important cordwood, watershed, and other values. In most in-
stances, these will be safeguarded if the lands are managed to restore
depleted grazing values and to sustain forage production of improved
ranges.
The full opportunities for cooperative effort have not been ex-
hausted in fostering better range management and range improve-
ments as well as in the reduction of costs in handling range livestock.
Livestock associations can render a great service by sponsoring such
cooperative effort. Many examples of the beneficial results from
cooperative handling on the national forests might be cited, such as
in "Utah, where it has attained efficient development. The degree of
success attained, as well as the possibilities in the operation of the
Montana laws providing for cooperative grazing districts, merit
detailed and careful study.
Improvement of range conditions and better range management
hinge, in some instances, on cash outlays for revegetatipn and for
facilities such as water development and fences. It is estimated that
on the 376 million acres of privately owned lands the following ex-
494 THE WESTERN RANGE
penditures will be required: Water development, 3 million dollars;
range fences, 6.2 million ; revegetation, 48 million ; and rodent control,
6 million. A considerable part of the cost of these improvements
will be carried by the personal time of the owner or by part time
of labor employed anyway. Some assistance of governmental agen-
cies on these improvements is also justified.
WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN DO
The United States Department of Agriculture and the State agri-
cultural colleges have accorded far less attention to range manage-
ment than to crop-agriculture in the western range States. How-
ever, during the last 8 to 10 years, some systematized effort along that
line has been inaugurated. The complexity of the problems and the
large public values involved warrant a more intensified attack, both
in research and extension.
If the capital investments mentioned above are made and a good
forage cover established, important public values and benefits in
favorable watershed conditions, and in establishment of desirable
habitat for game will simultaneously be secured. Hence, public
assistance may well be warranted. Possibilities include a public
subsidy for seed or planting stock for revegetation and erosion con-
trol; investigations of management and revegetation; explorations
of water sources ; and extension of credit on a long-time amortization
basis. With the gradual taking over of the 125 million acres or so
of range and submarginal cultivated areas recommended in a pre-
vious section, one of the first efforts after acquirement will doubtless
be the development of such improvements as are necessary to assure
restoration of forage values, primarily by the public agencies.
The recent decision of the Supreme Court held it unconstitutional
for the Federal Government to regulate agricultural production on
private land through the Agricultural Adjustment Administration,
in accordance with the provisions of a cooperative agreement between
the Government and the owner. This ruling may handicap the
highly imperative program in range rehabilitation on private lands,
as one of its primary requirements should be that the landowner
practice good range management in order to qualify for Federal
assistance and to assure solvency of the public investment. States
should share in this responsibility, although most States in the
range region have low public incomes.
Some areas in private ownership are so inferior in natural pro-
ductivity and have been so badly misused that the costs of restora-
tion can never be justified in private ownership. These lands, in
many instances, must be restored to good condition in order to con-
serve public values ; accordingly, the safest policy seemingly requires
acquisition, restoration, and administration by the public.
PUBLIC COMPENSATION FOB GAME MANAGEMENT
Private ranges support much game and in many places could ad-
vantageously maintain even more wildlife. Adequate provision for
these game animals sometimes requires sacrifice of part of the forage
which could be used by domestic livestock. Where game is hunted
by publicly licensed nimrods, the States and sportsmen's associa-
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 495
tions may well consider compensation to landowners for such serv-
ices. This can be met, for example, by providing fees to the land-
owner, as is done in Nebraska, where the hunter buys scrip, which
he gives to the owner of the land where he kills game. Several
other States also provide some form of compensation for owners.
Increasing game for its aesthetic values may properly be considered
as a public responsibility for compensation to private owners. In
consideration of such public aid, the States can require affirmative
plans of game conservation.
CONTROL OF PRODUCTION
Manufacturers and other organized producers of consumers' goods
can limit their output reasonably well to suit the demand; live-
stock producers, lacking adequate organizations among the many
independent units, have not, prior to the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration in 1933, maintained production in relationship to con-
sumption requirements. However, even under this administration
no attempt has been made to control the production of range cattle
or sheep. It is wholly impossible for stockmen to cease operations
even temporarily, as animals have to be fed and cannot abruptly be
snuffed out during a depression. In fact, the depression may,
and usually does, result in holding unsalable or low-value animals on
range lands; this, temporarily, may even increase production.
Radical changes in markets have taken place. Even before the
World War the export demands steadily declined. The decrease in
American foreign trade in range products is shown by comparison
of averages for the 4-year period ending June 30, 1926, with the
4-year period terminating June 30, 1935. The excess of exports over
imports in "meat and meat products" dropped from 269 million
dollars in the first period to 49 million in the second, or to 18
percent. In "miscellaneous animal products" the decrease in net
imports was from 29 to 7 million dollars, or to 26 percent. "Wool
and mohair" shows net imports in both periods, but decreased from
122 to 15 million dollars, or to 12 percent; "hides and skins" also
showed a decrease in net imports from 93 to 33 million dollars, or
to 36 percent.
A continuously expanding home market, characteristic of the
country before the disappearance of the western frontier, no longer
exists. Immigration has been materially restricted ; greatly reduced
exports, following the World War, have changed our former de-
mands. Competition from other livestock-producing countries fur-
ther complicates the problem. These factors indicate the desirability
for control of unmanaged surpluses, gaged to meet home and export
demands. Irrespective of what form production control takes, coop-
erative effort of the producer will be needed for intelligent and effec-
tive administration of the machinery used, an activity in which
the livestock association can aid measurably.
What the public may consummate in production control through
voluntary cooperation is still problematical. Various factors and
unmanaged surpluses emphasize that control of production is a
problem which requires serious consideration by both the private
owner and the public. The name for production control may
496 THE WESTERN" KANGE
change; legal necessity has changed its form and may do so again;
but the loss of most of the export market has made permanent the
essential need for avoiding unmanageable surpluses.
MARKETS
Western livestock producers are subject to marketing handicaps
due to their remoteness from markets, high transportation rates,
costly feed and handling expenses in transit, selling commissions,
market differentials, impersonal marketing services, and the common
market gluts. Cooperative marketing is an outgrowth of widespread
dissatisfaction and exemplifies the determined effort of the live-
stock and wool producers of the West to solve their marketing
troubles.
The stockmen may still better fortify their position by further
cooperative expansion through marketing services, such as those
furnished by national, regional, and local marketing associations
in connection with grading, selling, shipping, feed and handling
costs, legal services, and credits. Better breeding and grade stand-
ardization of livestock, wool, and mohair will also aid. This
strengthening of confidence between the producer and purchaser by
uniform grading methods will probably result in reduced marketing
costs and improved prices. Much may be accomplished by encourag-
ing and developing the direct-contact selling method that is gaining
favor in the West, through the medium of neighborhood pools and
auctions which sell direct to buyers who accept delivery on the farm,
or ranch, or at the local railhead.
A full recognition of the necessity for prompt movement off the
range of natural increase and other livestock that has attained
market maturity should prove helpful. The carry-over of animals
in market finish has generally proved unprofitable to producers and
injurious to overcrowded ranges. It also contributes to market in-
stability, increased feeding costs, reduced calf crops, and other range,
market, and production evils.
Public aid in helping stockmen solve their market problems has
been facilitated by definite committal of the Federal Government
to the principles of cooperative marketing, through the develop-
ment of public highways and agricultural extension. Additional
public assistance is needed for studying freight rates, market differ-
entials, production and market distribution, price fluctuations, and
the application of direct-extension methods to keep stockmen abreast
of the times in livestock improvement and in the quantitative and
qualitative demands of the trade.
CREDITS
Weaknesses in present commercial credit methods and banking
practices work hardships on producers. These include the nego-
tiation of short-time loans where the nature of the operation pre-
cludes consummation of the project before loan maturity, and high
interest rates with the virtual compounding of interest at frequent
maturity intervals. Loan agencies have also often been liberal in
credit during boom periods and extremely tight during depressions.
Such loan practices have ordinarily resulted in accentuating losses
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP — LAND AND LIVESTOCK 497
by the depreciation of both real-estate and chattel security. An-
other difficulty has obtained from the overvaluation of livestock in
appraising the proper relationship of owned range or range privi-
leges to chattel security as a satisfactory basis for credit. Main-
tenance of the range resource merits greater recognition as being of
fundamental importance in credit stabilization and the determina-
tion of favorable loan-amortization rates. The evil of placing ex-
cessive-credit reliance on livestock security without proper consid-
eration of the range resource has frequently reacted unfavorably to
loan agencies, to stockmen, and to the range.
The loan-agency requirement that the range land upon which the
chattel security is based be a fee-owned, self-sufficient unit, or that
leases, permits, or privileges for grazing on other private or public
lands be made a part of the collateral and that the lessors or per-
mittors be bound to recognize transfer and assignments in case of
foreclosure or other subsequent transactions is a credit situation
which may adversely affect range maintenance. These privileges are
thus virtually noncancelable and not subject to material reductions
of grazing animals during the life of the loan. Consent to such
pledging of Federal-grazing privileges on public lands, as security
for private loans, cannot be effectively harmonized with range re-
storation and the requirements of other public resources, interests,
and demands.
Under the Federal Farm Credit Acts, however, more favorable
and satisfactory public credit facilities are rapidly being developed.
These include discouragement of overexpansion, longer durations
for loans, lower interest rates, adequate provision of range and other
forage, careful inventory of forage as well as livestock and other
assets, and recognition of the moral risk of the borrower.
The private land owner must accept his obligation to develop,
maintain, and perpetuate the range resource as the collateral for
dependable long-term credit. The wider use of cooperative associa-
tions, which guarantee the integrity of credits of their members,
should help in lowering interest rates and strengthening individual
credit ratings.
Public studies of long-time livestock values and returns are im-
portant in establishing interest rates, loan terms, and equitable long-
term-loan retirement rates. A further investigation of the needs
and methods of using long-term Federal credit might be of vital
importance in providing working capital and in freeing operators
from forced liquidations.
TAXATION
At present, in practically all of the western range States, it is
impossible to ascertain the assessed values of range lands from tax
records as they are usually involved in a classification with other
property. Studies of the assessment of forest and other lands indi-
cate an almost universal tendency to assess lands of low productiv-
ity at a relatively higher ratio to actual value than obtains with
more productive land. Because of this tendency, low-value range
lands are probably at a disadvantage (47) .
The private owner, through his various associations, may appro-
priately exert his influence in favor of an adequate survey of prop-
64946 — 36 33
498 THE WESTERN RANGE
erty-tax system in the range region. Any such survey should stress
determination of existent assessment practices and basic data, which
would be invaluable as a foundation for a more equitable assess-
ment. Possibly the experiences of Wisconsin, where State super-
vision of assessment and equalization between taxing districts is
more successfully conducted than in most States, afford a satis-
factory solution (47) -
In this study of taxation, range lands should be classified sepa-
rately from farm lands and other properties, and the size of the
tax burden in proportion to the values and the incomes from the
various classes of property should be determined. This would indi-
cate whether the range lands are actually taxed higher in relation
to productivity than other classes of property. Since a large part
of the property tax goes to support local government, it may also
be desirable to include some analysis of the cost and organization
of local government in districts where range land predominates in
order to determine whether such cost may be reduced, or at least
of decreasing the local expense burden, without curtailing essential
functions. A reduction in the number of local governmental units
and other measures which have been suggested (47) f°r relieving
the burden of taxation in sparsely settled forest districts may gen-
erally prove equally adaptable to range-land areas.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
The scientific background on which future range management must
be based is new and limited. Extension aid for the range problem
is restricted to a few localities where county agents and extension
livestock specialists give it scant and sporadic attention, incidentally
to the assistance rendered arable-land agriculture. Stockmen are en-
titled to direct extension aid on their range-management problems.
The program on research and extension, a public responsibility, is
outlined in a succeeding part of this report.
IMPROVING RURAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The fundamental purpose of any potential program should be the
permanent betterment of rural social conditions by improving the
basic economics of private ownership of western range lands. Con-
siderable of the difficulty would be solved if the financial income of
the individual producer could be assured at a point where he would
be able to make his home a better place of abode, typical of a higher
plane of living than most owners now can possibly even anticipate.
Efficient and comprehensive development of such an objective may be
the foundation stone of a new and more enduring livestock ranch-
ing industry. To adequately consummate such a program private
owners and the public both have important responsibilities.
The private owner operating on submarginal lands or on a unit
that is socially and economically unsound should recognize either
the necessity for adjustments which will overcome unprofitable oper-
ations or the abandonment of the endeavor to make a satisfactory
home under such adverse conditions. Those outfits remaining in
private ownership should recognize that management principles
which will rehabilitate depleted ranges and assure most effective use
PRIVATE OWNERSHIP LAND AND LIVESTOCK 499
of the forage and reasonable returns from the livestock, need to be
instituted. Inflationary land values must be written off, the range
resources maintained, and greater use made of cooperative effort in
guaranteeing loans in order to stabilize land values and secure sound
credit.
The public should make provision for gradually acquiring ap-
proximately 125 million acres of submarginal lands, especially those
with high public values, in order to assure such management as will
safeguard public interests. It should also facilitate the develop-
ment of sound social and economic home units. This is especially
true for ranches dependent upon public range lands for grazing as
part of their economic security, or where the owner can be employed
on work aimed at the betterment of public lands. Already the Fed-
eral Farm Credit Administration is furnishing credit facilities which
are stabilizing range-land enterprises. Further extension of such
credit facilities would be desirable. Adequate studies of taxation
affecting range lands and ranch properties used in connection with
range lands are needed in an effort to develop more equitable taxa-
tion.
The stockmen and livestock associations would perform a real:
service for rural life by fostering public interest and action in im-
proving rural social conditions. No great material and permanent
advance can be consummated in rural living, however, unless appre-
ciation and pride in the land resource are accepted as the founda-
tion stones of rural civilization. Economic distress, traceable to-
land abuse, cannot be ameliorated or removed until stewardship
of the land becomes the tenet of rural thinking.
The quest for new lands to conquer must be replaced by the desire
to improve and maintain the lands already occupied. Any conscious
community effort to bring the ranch and the range into full produc-
tive capacity will be accompanied by innumerable social dividends
and benefits.
THE MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS
By L. F. WATTS, Director, Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Ex-
periment Station, GEORGE STEWART, Senior Forest Ecologist, and CHARLES
CONNAUGHTON, Silviculturist, Intennountain Forest and Range Experiment
Station, L. J. PALMER, Principal Forest Ecologist, Rocky Mountain Forest
and Range Experiment Station, and M. W. TALDOT, Senior Forest Ecologist,
California Forest and Range Experiment Station
The essential features of the program for the management of the
western range lands are interwoven throughout the whole agricul-
tural fabric of which it is an integral part. Dependent individuals,
rural communities, and to a lesser extent the urban centers, have not
enjoyed the social and economic security which sound development
should bring. The rule-of-thumb methods, discussed previously,
which have been used in handling range lands have resulted in exces-
sive stocking and serious range depletion. If this condition is to
be corrected, technically sound range management practices must
be substituted. This is the premise upon which the proposed pro-
gram is based.
Clearly, the forage crop should be so used as to maintain the
highest state of productiveness and at the same time afford the
greatest total contribution to the livestock industry and other legit-
imate services of the range. Numbers of livestock; availability of
range for each season of use; the production of supplemental feeds
such as hay, grain, agricultural byproducts, and irrigated pastures;
and the requirements for wildlife, recreation and watershed services,
and timber production on forest ranges, must be kept in balance
if maximum production without misuse of the range is to be had.
The livestock contribution must, as nearly as possible, be predi-
cated on sustained production. This means stocking of the ranges
only to that point where — the possible use of supplemental feeds
considered — excessive forced shipments will be unnecessary even
during drought years. The apparent surplus of forage left on the
range during good years will constitute a worth-while investment
in soil and plant building, watershed health, and in feed reserves for
the dry years.
The halting of unchecked damage and the rehabilitation of de-
pleted ranges is the first step in the program. Overgrazed and
run-down ranges on which the volume or quality of forage now
produced has been seriously reduced through improper use must be
brought into satisfactory condition. Generally this will simply
mean lighter stocking and better management, but for some condi-
tions a complete rest of the range for a few years will be necessary.
In the worst instances of depletion by grazing, and on a large part
of the land which has been plowed and abandoned for crop use,
artificial reseeding will be required if something approaching maxi-
mum productivity is to be realized within a reasonable time.
Under such a program the best contribution that the range, all
things considered, will make to social and economic well-being will
501
-502 THE WESTERN RANGE
be through the maximum application of the multiple use principle.
Pasture for domestic livestock, watershed protection, feed and cover
for wildlife, recreational opportunities, and timber production where
practicable are all legitimate services which range lands can supply.
Except for limited areas, range land can contribute to each of these
services without excluding the others. Conflicts between the desires
of special groups often represented by organized vocal minorities
will have to be met. The solution in each instance requires the type
of coordination which results permanently in the greatest service to
the most people.
More recognition should be given to the extent to which depleted
ranges counterbalance improvement made by livestock breeding. As
shown in discussing the functions of an integrated agriculture for
the West, the increased values which good breeding should insure
to the stockman are too often lost because of the low plane of nutri-
tion furnished by overgrazed or depleted ranges. Light-weight
feeder steers and half-fat lambs, instead of grass-fat steers and
"top" lambs, are dumped on glutted markets. Calf and lamb crops
are reduced materially. But the most serious repercussion of over-
stocked and depleted ranges on animal husbandy comes during
drought years, when breeding herds built up at great expense over
a period of years too often must be sacrificed. Thus the profits ex-
pected from improved animal-husbandry practices are reduced if
not entirely lost.
Lack of certainty in predicting future requirements for agricul-
tural products is a national problem. The future balance between
export demands and import needs, and even the possible volume of
domestic consumption are baffling questions to which the best thought
of the Nation is being directed. The estimate that more than
25 million acres of now submarginal cropland, not yet abandoned,
must be diverted to other use is based in part on the threat of periodic
overproduction. That most of this land must revert to pasturage
is obvious. Thus new concepts in range stocking, in providing for
wildlife, in improving watershed conditions, and in recognition of
recreational needs are being worked out.
Conversely the range may serve as the reservoir of land from
which to draw additional acreage for crop agriculture if needed.
Reclamation through irrigation as a part of the resettlement pro-
fram, for example, seems logical and will remove some of the more
Brtile level land from range use. Emergencies, such as those which
arose during the World War may arise again and require temporary
major increases in crop acreage and in livestock production. Such
demands will be met more easily if the natural range lands are re-
•haibilitated to maximum productivity and the soil on areas now sub-
marginal for crop use is improved and protected from erosion by
providing a satisfactory plant cover. Thus the range may well be
one buffer against contingencies which arise from changing land-use
requirements.
Although the program best suited to meet the needs of the West
should be built around the multiple-use principle, for simplicity of
presentation each of the five major functions of livestock production,
watershed protection, wildlife, recreation, and timber production
will be discussed separately.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 503
A PROGRAM FOR DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
Three systems of grazing have been recognized as desirable to
restore aiid maintain the plant cover. As described below, the condi-
tions which must be met will decide which system is best for a given
area.
SYSTEMS OF GRAZING
Deferred and rotation grazing (11 4) 4T reduced to its, simplest
form means dividing the range into from three to five units and
deferring grazing on one unit each year until, after the seed crop has
matured. By so treating a new unit each year the entire area will be
rested and grazed in rotation.
The system, developed on mountain ranges, is primarily appli-
cable to stands of perennial grasses that are chiefly dependent upon
seed for their perpetuation. Other systems of conservative manage-
ment may be better adapted to certain types of short-lived annual
forage plants which dry quickly and are less palatable after matu-
rity, or to certain perennials that reproduce by runners or "stooling"
instead of seed.
Experience has shown that most forage plants can, after seed
maturity, withstand the removal of as much foliage as is ever desir-
able from the standpoint of good range management. As a guide
to intensity of this deferred use, 20 to 30 percent of the palatable
growth of the important forage plants should be left when the
stock are finally removed for the year.
The deferred and rotation system is especially adapted to use on
sheep range. The close control under which the band is held makes
the system usable without the cost of fencing. With cattle or horses
its use becomes complicated, in many cases requiring, in addition
to salting and herding control, the construction of drift fences or
pastures if the stock are to be held off from deferred areas. With
ample range for each season, however, the objective should be to so
handle most range areas to which the system is adapted.
In application, the number of divisions of the range is based on
the period of grazing left after seed maturity. For example, if
one-fifth of the season remains after seed maturity, the range may
be divided into five parts and each year one of the five divisions
is in turn left ungrazed until toward the end of the season. After
the seed has ripened, the stock are moved to the area and in grazing
over it help to scatter the seeds and cover them with soil.
In order to protect the new seedlings which germinate the fol-
lowing spring, the area deferred 1 year should be grazed next to the
last the following year. The objective, of course, is to secure an
ample seed crop, help seedlings to become established, and pro-
vide protection until they become a part of the native plant cover.
Continual moderate grazing is more suitable than deferred and
rotation on (1) ranges used yearlong, such as those of the South-
west; (2) on many cattle ranges where it is not now feasible to
-construct the fences and structures required to control the move-
ment of the stock; (3) for those important forage species that are
47 Because of space limitations the treatment of technical features of range manage-
ment must here be kept brief and simple. The references cited throughout this section
•cover the topics in detail and cite additional literature on the specific subjects.
504 THE WESTERN RANGE
not dependent on seed for reproduction ; and (4) locally in Arizona,
the Northern Great Plains, and California where certain areas are
used during the winter and others during the summer. Where this
system is used the number of stock grazed must be small enough to
permit about one-fourth of the seed from the better forage plants
to ripen. It is very desirable to so handle the stock that each year
a portion of the range is used very lightly, since rest periods for
the range and a chance to build up plant vitality are essential.
This system requires frequent and careful inspection to make sure
that the better forage species are not progressively being eliminated.
Alternate grazing is limited to ranges where it is possible to use a
tract for a few weeks, after which all of the stock are removed to
another area and kept there until the forage on the one first grazed
has made enough growth to withstand another period of use. This
system is highly effective on cultivated pastures under irrigation or
in humid regions where heavy grazing for short periods helps to
keep the coarse plants in check. On arid ranges, however, the heavy
use for even a short period is likely to damage the soil, encourage ero-
sion, and destroy part of the plants by trampling. Obviously this
system can be applied much less generally than deferred and rota-
tion grazing or continual moderate use.
RANGE REHABILITATION
Most of the 721 million acres of usable range land can be restored
to full productivity during use if the numbers of livestock grazed
and the systems of management provide fully for natural revegeta-
tion and protection of the plants after establishment. On possibly
340 million acres of these lands, though there has been loss of fer-
tility, there is enough topsoil rich in organic matter and with suffi-
cient water-holding power to insure forage recovery if the intensity
of grazing and period of use are corrected. All that the plants
require under these conditions is a chance to grow green leaves, to
retain them long enough to produce sufficient plant foods, and to
bring about food storage in the plant roots and stems. Plants so
protected are vigorous and either by seeding or otherwise will repro-
duce satisfactorily. An opportunity for existing plants to retain
their vitality and reproduce is absolutely necessary if ranges are to
be restored and maintained.
Unfortunately, well over 100 million acres of range lands has been
so badly abused by grazing that most or all of the fertile topsoil is
gone, on which conditions of both nutrition and moisture are unfa-
vorable for plant growth. On such soils, even under moderate graz-
ing, natural revegetation is slow. No great increase in vigor of old
plants can be expected until the soil is built up. Several plant gen-
erations of weeds, annual grasses, and other plants capable of grow-
ing on poor soils of low water-holding capacity will be required.
Complete closure to grazing, and other special treatment, including
artificial reseeding, may be necessary.
Artificial revegetation is necessary on nearly 38 million acres of
range land from which the desirable forage species have been largely
removed. Two types of land are involved: (1) those areas from
which all of the desirable forage has been eliminated by plowing for
crop agriculture, and (2) those on which continued grazing abuse
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 505
has depleted the vegetative cover, and in some instances the soil, to
a point where natural revegetation satisfactory for grazing or water-
shed protection will be entirely too slow of accomplishment. Studies
in Montana, Colorado, and Utah, discussed elsewhere, show that for
the first type of land it will, take 20 to 50 years to restore the native
cover.
On good soils, either abandoned plowed or denuded range land,
perennial grasses and the most valuable herbs and shrubs may be
seeded at once. The abandoned dry farms that make up the larger
part of this class of land originally produced fine crops of native
grasses. Normally, the soil, is still good enough to justify prompt
reseeding with the best plants available. No attempt is here made to
name the species best suited to given regions as conditions vary so
greatly that final choice must be based on the characteristics of the
site and locality to be planted. The State agricultural colleges and
the Forest Service can furnish advice based on experience. On these
better areas reseeding is a relatively simple problem. However, the
likelihood of drought makes it unsafe to predict success more than
half of the time, and therefore, in estimating costs for large areas it
is safe to assume that two seedings will on the average be needed.
On eroded soils which lack the proper plant foods, the problem
is far from simple, as the sowing of perennial grasses and other of
the most valuable forages offers little hope of success. Only those
plant species that can withstand raw soils and irregular moisture
supply can succeed. In order to restore this class of range a detailed
study of soil condition and also of the plants that will survive must
be made. Native weeds and legumes and imported species must be
tried and provision must be made to collect or produce seed in ample
quantities from those that are successful. Plant breeding to develop
desirable strains suited to badly depleted soils is urgently needed.
For certain species the planting of pieces of sod or rootstocks is
more logical than propagation by seed. Also in many instances
cheapest and most satisfactory results will be had by revegetating
numerous small spots or key areas from which a cover will spread
to or fill in the space between.
On abandoned crop land and other level denuded areas the com-
mon grrain drill with a part of the holes plugged is very effective.
Usually, even in the case of heavy stands of Russian thistle or other
weeds, it is best to drill on land not prepared by plowing or harrow-
ing. If the weeds interfere seriously with the operation of the
drill they may be burned broadcast or in windrows. Seeding on un-
prepared ground not only reduces the cost but in many instances
will increase the percentage survival.
Great areas of rough, steep, and brush-covered ranges cannot be
drilled. Under such conditions the seed must be scattered by hand
and trampled in with livestock or by other inexpensive methods. A
few areas not suitable for drilling," but with good soils and in key
locations, ought to be seeded on furrow edges plowed at intervals
and covered with a brush drag. The labor costs by this method are
high, but its use on key areas having deep productive soils makes
success likely.
Whatever the method of reseeding and whatever the plant species
reseeded, complete protection from grazing for one or two seasons
is required in order to permit the seedlings to establish themselves.
506
THE WESTERN RANGE
Very often it may be desirable to supplement by artificial reseeding
the natural reseeding provided for on that part of the range to be
improved by deferred and rotation grazing, or by continual moderate
grazing. In such case the expense and trouble of reseeding require
that proper intensity of stocking and proper grazing management be
provided in order to prevent failure.
Cost figures for the various methods of artificial reseeding for
range use are not too reliable, but using the methods described they
should be low. The most serious problem is that of securing a suffi-
cient supply of suitable seed. Assuming that an ample seed source
will be developed as needed, and that a market price of around 15
cents per pound may be expected, the cost, using a grain drill and
4 to 5 pounds of seed per acre and figuring on failure half the time,
should not exceed $2.50 to $3 per acre. With hand seeding and
trampling in by livestock, the cost for two seedings should not exceed
$1.50 to $2.50 per acre. Final decision as to the necessity and feasi-
bility for planting any area must, of course, be based on careful con-
sideration of conditions on the ground. Detailed surveys required to
select areas are in most cases lacking; therefore the data given in
table 80, which gives an estimate of acres and costs, by ownerships,
are only indicative of the size of the job ahead.
TABLE 80.-
-The extent of the indicated artificial range-revegetation program
and costs, by ownerships
Ownership classes
Area (acres)
Cost per
acre
Total cost
National forest..
780,000
$3 50
$2 730 000
Indian lands
1 630 000
2 85
4 645 000
Public domain, grazing districts, etc _
18, 000, 000
2.55
45 900,000
State and county
2 490 000
3 05
7 595 000
Private
15 010 000
3 20
48 032 OOOi
Total
37 910 000
• 2 87
108 902 000
PESTS, DISEASES, AND POISONOUS-PLANT ERADICATION
Poisonous plants are a menace to the success of range revegetation
or utilization. Most poisonous plants occur in great abundance only
on ranges so badly depleted that the more valuable forage species
are weakened or killed. In the more open spaces, on soil too poor in
organic matter to support the better forage grasses, weeds come in.
Some of them, like low larkspur, loco, lupine, deathcamas, sneeze-
weed, and horsebrush, are poisonous. They tend to increase on
noneroded soils on which heavy or untimely grazing removes the
valuable forages. Some species like tall larkspur, waterhemlockr
and sleepy grass may grow on good ranges with good soils. The
real remedy for most poisonous plants is to remove the causes, i. e.r
to bring about by conservative use, and reseeding when required,
the revegetation of the range by the more valuable forages. On a
few key areas, especially where tall larkspur or waterhemlock oc-
curs, grubbing or treating with chemicals may be practiced at costs
of about $3.50 an acre for grubbing or $6 for treating with chemicals.
Even when these practices are resorted to it may be necessary to
revegetate the range with good forage, lest the poisonous plants
again occupy the area.
MANAGEMENT OF KANGE LANDS 507
Rodents are a menace on about 285 million acres of range and
must be checked by the use of poison bait, trapping, or by other
accepted methods of treatment. The cost will be about 8 cents per
acre. A reasonable 10-year program should doubtless plan on con-
trol measures on approximately 150 million acres, at a total cost of
about $12,000,000.
Although native plants are not seriously injured by disease, it is
possible that species developed for artificial reseeding may be. Close
watch must be maintained to insure the use of disease-resistant
species for range restoration. Some undesirable plants, such as
"cheat grass", are subject to smut and may be thus held in check.
However, it is much surer and much safer to accomplish the same
thing by favoring desirable species through range management and
reseeding. In the absence of fire or too severe cropping, the better
native species will suppress such undesirables and succeed them in
occupying the range.
GRAZING CAPACITY
The range should be stocked with the number of animals which
the unit will support each season over a period of years without
injury to the range, tree growth, or watershed, or unwarranted in-
terference with game and recreation (79). Figure 85 graphically
indicates present grazing capacity of western ranges. Since the-
various species of plants differ greatly in palatability, it is to be
expected that the better kinds will be most heavily grazed. In de-
termining grazing capacity the degree of use of the most palatable
of the more abundant species must control. On ranges where the
desirable plant species have been seriously reduced in number,
stocking should be such as to encourage their return to importance.
Thus, on properly stocked ranges the least palatable plants will
barety be nibbled.
When a range is stocked more heavily than its true grazing ca-
pacity, either (1) the cover will get thinner, thereby exposing bare
ground; or (2) the tough, woody, gummy, or unpalatable plants will
increase in relative or absolute abundance. Rangers and stockmen
should note carefully which plants are not eaten by livestock and
check on their increase from year to year as an indication of over-
stocking. Experience has shown that somewhere near 20 to 30
percent of the palatable growth of the more important forage species
should be left ungrazed each year. An adequate series of permanent
plots from which detailed annual records of plant numbers and
conditions can be kept is essential to really reliable and accurate
determination of the proper degree of stocking. Also, on areas
covered by range surveys, forage-acre figures arrived at by the
method developed on national-forest ranges 48 will be found especially
helpful.
Additional considerations in making grazing capacity estimates
include, among others: (1) History of grazing use of areas; (2)
fluctuations in forage crop from year to year, due chiefly to climate,
as previously explained; (3) deductions (on depleted ranges) to
provide a safety margin for their improvement; and (4) necessary
allowances for unfavorable physical conditions, such as rough to-
48 U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Instructions for grazing surveys
on national forests. 40 pp. 1935. [Mimeographed.]
508
THE WESTERN RANGE
pography, young timber growth, inadequate livestock watering
places, or poisonous plants.
That range lands in all types and in all ownerships have been too
heavily grazed has been fully discussed in a preceding chapter. As
a result, drastic action will be required to restore this empire of
range lands to something approaching maximum production. Table
81 shows by the major types the original and present grazing ca-
pacity of the land now in range and the percent to which each type
has been depleted through improper management. In only the tall-
grass type is depletion less than 25 percent and in onlv one other
(open forest) is it much less than half. Since depletion is con-
tinuing on most of the range area, the task of restoring these ranges
will require material reductions in the number of livestock now
using the range. Table 82, which is based on the best information
available, shows that an average reduction in animal-months' use
of 38.5 percent will be required to bring the stocking down to a
TABLE 81. — Grazing capacity of western range, by types
Types
Virgin range, graz-
ing capacity
Present range
Depletion
(percent)
Grazing capacity
Acres per
animal-
month
Animal-
months
per
section
Acres per
animal-
month
Animal-
months
per
section
Tall grass
1.9
2.1
2.2
2.9
2.9
4.4
5.2
3.4
4.9
4.0
337
305
291
221
221
146
123
188
131
160
21
49
51
55
67
62
71
60
50
33
2.4
4.1
4.5
6.4
8.9
11.5
17.8
8.4
9.8
5.9
267
156
142
100
72
56
•A
76
65
109
Short grass
Pacific bunchgrass _
Semidesert grass ...... .
Sagebrush-grass
Southern desert shrub
Salt-desert shrub ...
Pinon-juniper
WoodJand-chaparral .
Open forest
Averages
2.7
237
52
5.7
112
TABLE 82. — Present stocking, present grazing capacity, and potential graying
capacity (50 years hence} on the western range area1
Ownership classes
Present
stock-
ing,
animal-
months
per
section
Present
grazing
capac-
ity,
animal-
months
per
section
Reduction re-
quired to
reach grazing
capacity
Poten-
tial
grazing
capac-
ity,
animal-
months
per
section
Change from
present stock-
ing
Increase over
present graz-
ing capacity
Animal-
months
per
section
Per-
cent
Animal-
months
per
section
Per-
cent
Animal-
months
per
section
Per-
cent
National forests
95
106
94
226
239
89
78
53
113
146
6
28
41
113
93
6.3
26.4
43.6
50.0
38.9
106
120
94
193
237
+11
+14
+11.6
+13.2
17
42
41
80
91
19.1
53.3
77.4
70. S
62.3
Indian lands
Public domain, grazing districts,
etc
State and county
-33
-2
-14.6
-.8
Private
Average
182
112
70
38.5
180
2
1.1
68
60.7
i Ultimate stocking is based on the formula
(100- D) P
, in which D is the percent of depletion, P the ani-
mal-months per section of present range, and V animal-months per section of virgin range. Virgin carrying
capacity is modified by percents varying from 70 for public-domain lands (all Federal except national
orests and Indian lands) to 88 for national forests, to account for some encroachment of timber reproduc-
tion, retarded improvement under continual grazing use, and especially limitations in recovery due to
depleted soil. Credit is given for increased carrying capacity due to anticipated artificial reseeding. The
results of the formula were modified slightly where justified by more accurate data.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS
509
point where the ranges can recover. It is significant that this
reduction from present stocking varies from only 6.3 percent on
national forests, where the ranges have been carefully handled for
many years, to 50 percent on State and county lands, where, as a
ACRES PER
ANIMAL MONTH
2 Acres
2 to 4 Acres
4 to 6 Acres
6 to 10 Acres
10 to 16 Acres
_J Areas Mostly Ungrazed.lnclud-
ing Cultivated Land. National
Parks, National Monuments.and
Waste, Inaccessible, and Densely
Timbered Areas.
Note: An Animal Month Equals One Cow
or Horse Month and Five Sheep
or Goat Months.
Over 16 Acres
EASTERN LIMIT OF RANGE
TERRITORY
FIGURE 85.— PRESENT GRAZING CAPACITY OF WESTERN RANGE LANDS.
The tall-grass type of the prairies, which has the smallest average depletion, also has
the highest grazing capacity, an average of 2.4 acres per animal per month. The
short-grass and Pacific-bunchgrass ranges, although depleted one-half, also have a rela-
tively high capacity. The salt-desert shrub type of the Intermountain Region which
is depleted most severely, averages 17.8 acres per animal per month. (See figs. 25
and '60.)
result of accessibility and lack of management, use has been heaviest.
Perhaps the most significant required reduction is the 43.6 percent
for the grazing districts, unreserved public domain, and "other
Federal" reservations, because it applies to an extremely large
acreage.
510 THE WESTERN RANGE
PROPER SEASON OF USE
Use of the range only during the proper season is equally as
important as not exceeding grazing capacity (79). In some re-
gions and on some ranges, where snowfall is so light that stock can
normally forage for feed in winter, moderate yearlong continual
grazing with definite rest periods is the best system. However,
in regions of deep snowfall, such as is common on the high moun-
tain ranges, seasonal use is essential. At the higher elevations it
may be midsummer before the vegetation has developed to a point
where it can be eaten without injury to the plants or their necessary
seed production.
During the early period of plant growth the soil is usually sat-
urated with water and the plants, though palatable, are washy and
lacking in balanced nourishment for stock. During this period use
should be lightened or stopped to prevent great damage by tramp-
ling of the soft, muddy ground and also the pulling of many plants.
Usually in the foothill zone and valley edges of the northern
two-thirds of the mountain region growth begins early as the snow
retreats, but almost stops during the hot weather of midsummer.
Additional growth often takes place again when the fall storms and
cool weather come. In the spring such ranges are extremely val-
uable for use by stock moving between feed yards or winter ranges
and the summer ranges in the high mountains, and vice versa in
the fall. Other ranges, such as the salt-desert shrub type, on which
the snowfall is light and there is ordinarily no other source of
water, can be used only in winter. Thus there are four seasonal
types of range, as follows : Spring-fall, summer, winter, and year-
long. On large areas in California where growth continues all
winter, there is a fifth type, fall-winter-spring. The greatest short-
age exists in the spring-fall class in most regions.
Yearlong ranges should always be stocked sufficiently low that
damage does not occur, especially during the growth periods. As
pointed out by Dr. E. C. McCarthy, formerly with the Intermoun-
tain Forest and Range Experiment Station, excessive stocking will
damage the plants at any season, but most seriously during the first
few days after growth starts. Winter ranges should not be used
at all from the beginning of growth to late fall, thus saving the
entire crop for winter use. Spring-fall and summer ranges must
be carefully protected from excessive grazing during the period
of growth if they are to be maintained.
The tendency to use spring-fall range, which is normally the most
accessible, before the proper date must be overcome if depletion
is to be halted and the ranges improved. Here is one of the places
where the closest kind of coordination is required to balance the
use of the resources of ranch and range. One possible relief is in
the increased use of farm pastures and of supplemental feeds, both
roughages and concentrates, including the expanding list of agri-
cultural byproducts. Another possibility in certain regions is in
the possible diversion of either winter or summer range to this
season of use with extreme care in stocking and in management.
It is certain that the problem will not be solved by abuse of the
limited area of spring-fall range available. Such treatment can
only aggravate the situation.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 511
CLASS OF STOCK
Each unit of range is ordinarily best suited to use by only one
class of stock (79). The factors which control are the character of
the forage, distribution of water, and topography.
Cattle and horses do best on a range where the forage is pre-
dominately grass with a sprinkling of weeds and some browse;
sheep like nearly equal parts of grass, weeds, and browse, and
goats more browse. However, this balance is not especially sensi-
tive and the presence of ample forage is the main consideration.
Sheep or goats do well on straight grass ranges, and cattle on weed
and browse, or sheep on browse and grass.
Frequently other factors than the suitability of the range controls
the class of stock to be grazed. The local livestock industry may
be built around the class of stock for which the range is not best
suited. In such instances the important feature is that stocking
be based on the feed that the class of stock grazed can be expected
to use under good management.
Cattle must have access to water daily during hot weather but
sheep can go 2 to 5 days (much longer during cool weather), de-
pending on the succulence of the forage and the amount of dew,
and can reach out farther from watering places.
Steep, high, broken ranges are more readily used by sheep, and
low brushy ranges by cattle. Goats are capable of using forage on
rougher, more brushy, and hotter localities than are suitable for
either sheep or cattle. When one class of animals is using a range
better adapted by feed, topography, elevation, or water to another
class, extreme care must be taken not to overstock. Only the feed
within reach and usable by the class of stock on the range should
be considered in determining grazing capacity.
Some ranges, at least theoretically, will contribute most if grazed
by both sheep and cattle, and some by goats as well. In practice
this so-called common use has not been widely successful because
of the tendency to introduce the second class of stock without reduc-
ing the numbers of the class already there to maintain sufficiently the
total stocking rate at the grazing capacity of the range. Common
use, thus, has usuall ymeant double use which is fatal to the range.
Where forage, water, and topographic conditions are such as to
permit of common use without the total stocking being above the
grazing capacity for the combined classes, it may be used. Future
ranges must be grazed properly in this respect, and this means
scientific range management based on the forage supply.
DISTRIBUTION OF STOCK
Next to the proper rate of stocking, distribution of the stock on
the range is the most important feature in range management (79).
Any improvement in the distribution of animals is reflected in more
even utilization of the forage. Overuse of small areas, especially on
cattle ranges, cannot be prevented entirely, since the animals natur-
ally congregate at watering places, at bed grounds, and along routes
of travel. All of these conditions are much improved through (1)
avoidance of heavy stocking, (2) providing water at short intervals,
512
THE WESTERN RANGE
(3) the use of sufficient, well-located drift fences, and (4) proper
attention to salting and herding.
Water development (13, 139) aids distribution but on many ranges
involves heavy expenses for deep wells, for pumping, for the con-
struction of reservoirs, and for the development of springs. For
cattle the ideal arrangement is to so locate the watering places that
the animals can graze out to the boundary of the area served in half
a day — perhaps a mile on gently rolling country, and less where the
topography is rough or broken. The high cost, however, usually
forces a compromise between travel for the stock and cash outlay for
the improvements. On gently sloping ranges, cattle can travel 2%
to 3 miles to water, but on steep slopes and rough topography 1 mile
travel is probably as much as should be required. Sheep can travel
roughly twice as far to water as cattle. Table 83 indicates the ap-
proximate size of the water development job on range lands in va-
rious ownerships.
Properly located drift fences (79) are often essential to good dis-
tribution of cattle. Not only do they help to force the use of less
attractive ranges but also they are necessary in any attempt at proper
seasonal use. Range cattle, particularly, have a tendency to follow
the snow line back in the spring and can be successfully held back
until the forage is ready for use only by a series of well-constructed
and properly located fences. The best estimates obtainable indicate
that the investment shown in table 84 will be required to fence prop-
erly range land in the different ownership classes.
TABLE 83. — Range-water development program, ~by ownership classes
Ownership classes
Number
of
projects
Costs
Per acre
of
range
Total
National forests
8,205
3,000
6,050
3,760
10,500
$0. 0407
.0310
.0202
.0133
.0080
$3, 362, 000
1, 500, 000
3, 022, 000
868,000
13,018,000
Indian lands _ -
Public domain — grazing districts, etc
State and county
Private
Total
31, 515
.0163
11,770,000
i Cost estimates for the private-land program are made on the same basis as for public land. Actually a
very large part of the work, if done, will be as a slack-time job. The cash outlay thus will be very much
smaller than this figure.
TABLE 84. — Range-fencing program, by ownership classes
Costs
Ownership classes
build
Per mile
Per acre
of range
Total
National forests.. ..
13, 300
$329
$0 0530
$4, 376, 000
Indian lands
5 000
300
0310
1 500 000
Public domain — grazing districts, etc .
16,900
288
.0325
4, 861, 000
State and county
11 600
269
0480
3, 125, 000
Private
19 800
315
0166
i 6 246 000
Total .
66 600
302
279
20, 108, 000
See footnote to table 83.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 513
An ample supply of very coarse or block salt (32), properly dis-
tributed both as to location and as to time of use is required for equal
utilization on cattle ranges. Salt grounds, particularly on poorly
watered ranges, should be so placed in strategic locations away from
water as to induce the use of the maximum areas of the range. The
stock naturally tend to work from water to salt and vice versa, graz-
ing en route. Obviously, a carefully planned distribution of salt
grounds which considers not only the area of range to be used but
also the proper time of use is a major feature in distribution. Salt-
ing is an integral part of the current operating expense and therefore
no estimate of costs is included.
Herding of sheep is an old practice but needs to be done intelli-
gently to bring about proper use of the range. "Open" rather than
"close" herding, minimum use of dogs, and one night use of bed
grounds are all practices which ought to be standard. Such handling
not only prevents localized overgrazing and excessive trampling but
also produces fatter sheep on the same amount of forage. Educa-
tion, regulation, and inspection are the only costs of this step.
Herding naturally is less effective with cattle than with sheep.
Cattle do not normally graze in bands and there are fewer stock
to a given unit of area. Owners of large numbers of stock and asso-
ciations using a range unit cooperatively should provide riders who
can rather effectively direct the stock to the range which would other-
wise be underused. Usually salting is a part of the function of the
herder or rider. Here again the cost is an integral part of the
current operation.
NEED FOR MANAGEMENT PLANS
The full use of range lands without damage by domestic livestock
is dependent on continuity in applying a fundamentally sound plan.
A plan followed one year and abandoned the next serves no purpose.
Without this, use becomes haphazard and the evils described earlier
as accompanying rule-of -thumb management are bound to result.
To be of value the plan must be simple and workable and prefer-
ably should be recorded on suitable maps. It should take into ac-
count such essential features as (1) the grazing system, (2) grazing
capacity, (3) season of use, (4) distribution of stock, (5) the need for
special rehabilitation measures, and (6) any special provisions needed
for watershed protection, wildlife, or recreational use. For areas of
any size the plan should be a written record and should be revised
each year if necessary to meet changing conditions.
Unfortunately, the preparation of a thoroughly sound plan is not
a simple matter. Knowledge is needed of the requirements and
habits of livestock as well as of the requirements and habits of vari-
ous plants. For this reason, and because professional services in
this field are not otherwise available, this is a most promising field
for public aid. Through extension services and with the active
cooperation of the owner, plans based on available research and any
necessary surveys and study of the property should be offered to
private owners. The more progressive stockmen would welcome
assistance in this field.
The estimates of acres and costs shown in table 85 are based on
the assumption that thoroughly sound plans should be prepared for
64946—36 34
.514
THE WESTERN RANGE
all range land regardless of ownership. The necessary range sur-
veys are included in the estimates because the survey and plan are
almost inseparable. Costs per acre vary from 1 mill per acre for
areas where productivity is low and other public values are small
to 1 cent per acre where special problems of multiple use are involved.
As a result the cost per acre for range surveys and plans varies by
ownership from about 5 mills per acre on private land to 9 mills on
the national forests.
TABLE 85. — Area and cost of range surveys and management plans, by oivnershlp
classes
Co
3t
Total
Per acre
National forests .
56, 800, 000
$512, 000
$0. 0090
Indian lands
28, 500, 000
210, 000
.0074
Public domain — grazing districts, etc --
149, 390, 428
666, 000
.0045
State and county
65, 083, 932
345, 000
.0053
Private
215, 402, 000
860, 000
.0040
Total
515, 176, 360
2, 593, 000
.0050
POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTION FROM THE RANGE
The range resource has contributed enormously to the develop-
ment of the West, but unfortunately in making that contribution
the resource itself has been damaged to a serious extent. Range
lands in most ownerships have been depleted by overgrazing, im-
proper seasonal use, and other mismanagement. Over 50 million
.acres, which proved to be submarginal for such use, was plowed
up in an attempt to grow wheat and other dry-land crops. The
aftermath of the development period thus imposes a serious task of
rehabilitation and restoration if this once great resource is to be
built back up to a stage of productivity equal to that which existed
under virgin conditions. That this will be a slow process on ranges
from which the better kinds of plants have been removed or from
which much, if not all, of the top soil has been lost is recognized.
On the other hand, it is probable that by using such species as
crested wheatgrass in reseeding abandoned dry farm lands the pro-
duction will exceed that of the original native forage.
Not only is the restoration of the ranges required for maximum
sustained livestock production, but also the function of vegetation
in controlling erosion and improving water flows makes such treat-
ment even more important. Thus the range, through livestock, fur-
nishes a good market for the crops grown on irrigated ranches and
also, if properly used, safeguards the continued satisfactory supplies
of water of good quality for growing these crops.
Wildlife and recreation, two other major services of the range are
almost inseparable. That neither can be developed satisfactorily
under the present depleted condition of most of our ranges is per-
fectly clear. There is little food for game and less inspiration for
people to be had from denuded or tramped-out ranges and eroded
slopes and valleys.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 515
Present excessive stocking on part of the forest range interferes
with production of timber and other forest products. The tender
shoots of young forest growth are grazed in the spring and needles
are eaten in the late fall and winter when livestock remain on the
range too long and snows cover the forage.
The extent to which the other major services will require closure
for range use or reductions in numbers of stock grazed is discussed
in another section. With these factors in mind and with full ap-
preciation of the lack of a thoroughly reliable factual basis,
the data on grazing capacity 50 years hence in table 82 are pre-
sented. Although a present reduction of 38.5 percent appears to be
necessary if the ranges are to be restored, it is probable that at some
future; time the land will furnish the feed for as many livestock
as are now using it to excess. To reach this objective will require
full application of all of the principles of good range management.
Attainment will fall short to the extent that management falls
short of this ideal. In the final analysis it is not so important
whether the present grazing capacity is increased by 60.7 percent by
1985 or whether it is some higher or lower figure. The important
feature is the restoration of our ranges for the maximum contribu-
tion of the major uses to the welfare of the people of the West and
the Nation.
A PROGRAM FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION
Any program of management for range lands must provide ade-
quately for the conservation of the soil and other protection of the
watersheds. In view of their present condition, several methods of
treating these lands will be required. Limited areas will need to
be closed permanently to all grazing; small critical areas may need
artificial erosion control; in some instances temporary closure to
all grazing will be necessary; over a considerabe area of depleted
ranges, utilization of forage more conservative than normal for
range forage maintenance alone will be required; but, for the most
part, the need will be answered by conservative range-management
practices sufficient to bring about maximum continuous production
of forage. Where vegetative depletion is not excessive and the
soil resource not seriously impaired, the latter practice will ordi-
narily build up a productive soil mantle adequately protected from
erosion and capable of absorbing maximum quantities of precipi-
tation. In managing watershed lands in this manner, however, con-
tinual critical observations must be made to ascertain any evidence
of incipient erosion on areas not now eroding and the rapidity
of soil stabilization on eroding areas.
RESTORATION DURING GRAZING USE USUALLY SUFFICIENT
That the vegetative cover of the range can be restored at the
same time it is being used for grazing has been demonstrated on
the national forests, some privately owned land, and by research.
On probably 90 percent or more of the total range area the water-
shed values including soil building can be conserved at the same
time grazing is in progress. The one dominant theme is restoration
of plant cover.
516 THE WESTERN RANGE
Although this usually can be accomplished by inaugurating the
grazing practices previously described on badly deteriorated areas
in order to shorten the period of restoration, utilization of the forage
may necessarily be somewhat more conservative than would be re-
quired merely to restore grazing capacity. The inherent differences
in topography and soil and the nature of the depletion and erosion
over the range country will require a varied program of treatment.
On some areas of high watershed value or from which an intoler-
able amount of silt is coming as a result of past misuse, temporary
closure to grazing is desirable. Even though the condition might
ultimately be corrected during use, the element of time is extremely
important. The damage likely to result even with limited use, so far
exceeds the small returns from grazing on such areas that common
sense dictates temporary closure. Once the plant cover is restored,
these areas can again be used safely for grazing if properly managed.
Careful and continued observation of such land is, however, essen-
tial to determine when these measures should be applied and when
grazing can be resumed. For these reasons no attempt is made to
estimate the area requiring such treatment and length of time such
closure should continue. Application of a comprehensive program
demands, however, that this method be used wherever needed and for
such periods as may be necessary.
In some instances the municipal, agricultural, or industrial de-
pendency on the volume or quality of water yield is so great that no
impairment of watershed values can be risked and withdrawal from
grazing use must be complete and permanent. Watersheds supply-
ing domestic needs of Portland, Salt Lake City, and Pocatello are il-
lustrative of desirable withdrawals for cities of different sizes. Some
steep mountain areas with loose erosive soils, such as certain disin-
tegrated granite slopes of central Idaho and similar areas in Cali-
fornia, and considerable areas of vegetation types highly susceptible
of erosion, must be closed for protection of investments in water-
storage structures. Some areas of the arid Southwest, if they are to
be protected from the erosion caused by heavy summer rains, must
be restricted in use to a degree that would not be economical. Com-
plete and permanent closure, as shown in a previous section, is recom-
mended for 111/2 million acres, or only 1.6 percent of the range area,
in such exceptional situations.
ARTIFICIAL EROSION CONTROL NEEDED IN SOME CASES
On some watersheds where erosion is accelerating so rapidly that
natural plant growth and reproduction cannot unaided combat and
gain dominance over the forces of soil removal, artificial methods of
erosion control are required. These methods include artificial reveg-
etation as already described elsewhere, of denuded areas and supple-
mental structural undertakings such as terrace trenching and erosion-
control dams.
Terrace trenching is a system devised to break up and halt sheet
and gully erosion on slopes by retarding and controlling run-off
until the vegetation can again control the situation. By a series of
modified terraces built on slope contours, run-off is held until it can
seep into the soil. An outstanding example of its application is on
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 517
the Davis County watersheds in Utah where 1,000 acres were treated
at a cost of $44 per acre. It was only necessary to apply these
jnethods on the denuded portions of this 16,000-acre area in order to
halt erosion and check floods. This type of control has only reached
the field experiment stage and therefore the cost may be reduced con-
siderably. Obviously, however, the cost of such treatment will re-
strict its use to key areas on the most critical watersheds.
Erosion-control dams are used largely to control run-off in newly
formed small channels and arroyos (gullies), of gentle or moderate
gradient, and prevent their enlargement. In this method rough
dams are built at intervals along the watercourse in such a way
as to block rushes of water that have tremendous erosive force.
Such erosion control has been used a great deal in the Southwest,
in gullied mountain meadows in California, and elsewhere ; but size
and numbers of dams vary so greatly that it is meaningless to at-
tempt average cost per acre figures. Considerable work of this type
in the Wenatchee River Valley in Washington cost approximately
$20 per acre and similar work on the Plumas National Forest in
California necessitated expenditures of $25 per acre.
"Debris dams", with catchment basins above, have proved effective
for trapping debris and reducing flood damage in established chan-
nels of watersheds in the Los Angeles region. Heavy erosion and
run-off may occur locally on these exceedingly steep slopes, even when
closed to grazing, if hard rains fall on areas freshly denuded by fire.
Water-spreading by diversion is also used in the Southwest, and
in several other localities, as a means of erosion control. By this
method dams or dikes are thrown up to divert water over flats where
it is absorbed by the soil mantle. Cost per acre for this type of work
in the southwestern region was approximately $2.50 to $3 per acre.
Artificial control measures on range lands obviously are rarely
justified because of the expense involved, and they should be under-
taken only where values to be protected are high and a definite need
is demonstrated. In any event structural measures are only tem-
porary, short-lived expedients to aid in stabilizing the soil -while a
cover of vegetation is becoming established. Coincident with any
construction of trench terraces, erosion-control dams, or debris dams,
restoration of the plant cover must begin.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR WATERSHED PROTECTION
The service which flows from properly managed watershed lands
has both private and public aspects. At the one extreme is the large
interstate watershed, supplying water for power, irrigation, and do-
mestic use for industries, rural communities, and urban populations
often at great distances from the headwaters. At the other extreme
is the local mountain rancher who secures the same service from some
small creek running through his property. Thus the obligation to
protect the watersheds is a joint responsibility even though the
major part must of necessity be borne by the public.
Private owners of watershed lands have an obligation to protect
the watershed function. The responsibility of ownership carries
with it the clear restriction that its use must not seriously damage
your neighbor or the public. Thus the private owner of land does
518 THE WESTERN RANGE
have an obligation to so handle it that watershed values are not
seriously impaired. As has already been shown for most of the
area those range-management practices which will perpetuate the
plant cover are all that is required. This sort of treatment is in the
interest of the owner even though watershed values are ignored.
Viewed realistically, critical erosion and high water yield areas should
pass to public ownership to avoid the risks of misuse and damage
to high public values. As shown in the earlier discussion of probable
future use and ownership, such a program may involve 118 million
acres now in private hands.
Municipalities dependent for their water supply on comparatively
small nearby watersheds can efficiently manage and should own these
areas if they are not already under the supervision of other compe-
tent public agencies.
States can and should manage their range lands in such a way
as to conserve watershed values. Clearly, the responsibility of own-
ership carries with it the obligation to protect this most valuable
service. If this responsibility cannot be redeemed by the State, it
should not own the land. But States cannot cross their boundaries
to manage the range lands on the watersheds of a neighboring
State, even though they utilize most of the water yielded. California
and Arizona, for instance, cannot pretend to manage the watersheds
of the Colorado River in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah which silt
up their reservoirs and yield the water that they value so highly.
Oregon cannot manage the watersheds of the Owyhee River in
Idaho nor can Washington specify plans for the watersheds of the
Columbia River in Idaho. Where interstate dependencies become
so complicated, the only solution is Federal control of important
interstate watersheds.
A PROGRAM FOR WILDLIFE
That wildlife in America — animals, fish, and birds — has not re-
ceived the recognition which its importance justifies is now realized.
Hunting, fishing, trapping, and the recreational opportunities so
closely interwoven into their enjoyment are major factors in the
social and economic development of the West. Fortunately, if prop-
erly managed, the environment required by this valuable resource
of range lands can be maintained without serious interference with
use for other essential purposes.
"Single use" for game will be necessary on only a limited area.
Even on game refuges and bird sanctuaries, watershed protection will
be furnished and recreation may be allowed with some restriction.
Use by domestic livestock should not, however, be allowed on some
limited areas of especial importance to wildlife, such as: (1) Nesting
and feeding refuges for migratory waterfowl located at key points
along the paths of flight, (2) winter range for big game where
there is a critical shortage of feed for this season, (3) special areas
to preserve species in danger of extinction. Closure to domestic
stock because of such exceptional requirements for single use, cannot
be determined from information now available. Undoubtedly part
of the 20.5 million acres proposed for public acquisition for wildlife,
as previously discussed, will need to be closed. Approximately 2.8
MANAGEMENT OF KANGE LANDS 519
million acres are already closed for wildlife on national forests. In
the aggregate the area requiring closure, however, will probably not
exceed 1 or 2 percent of the range land.
JURISDICTIONAL PROBLEMS
The present system of handling wildlife on Federal lands where-
by the various States claim exclusive right of control of the game
within their boundaries is not working out satisfactorily. Under
it, the kind of management which will give the maximum sustained
contribution from wildlife and adequately protect the forage resource
upon which the game is dependent has not been possible. The sep-
aration of the control of game from the control of the environment
in which they live presents a serious problem which justifies earnest
consideration. So far the wildlife has suffered. The prompt adop-
tion of some effective arrangement which will make possible the
initiation of desirable management practices is badly needed.
In the light of established precedents the first attempt should be
to strengthen greatly the basis for cooperation between the States
and the Federal Government. State laws which will permit of flexi-
bility in treatment according to the needs of special cases and under
which prompt action is possible are required in most States. In
those States where a really workable plan for cooperative action
cannot be worked out, the handling of wildlife on Federal lands
should be turned over to the Federal Government. The problem is
too acute to permit of the delays in action which now result from un-
certainties as to the management of this valuable resource.
Any system of control must include wildlife on private lands and
be such as to assure the retention of the hunting privilege for the
average American. This precludes any system of control which
tends to vest ownership of game or of the hunting privilege in the
hands of private landowners. Some provision should, however, be
made for a reasonable return to the owner for the public benefits
derived from wildlife management and to induce his interest in main-
tenance on his land of an environment which is favorable to wildlife
restoration. Such compensation may be in the form of a permitted
fixed charge for hunting on the land, a permitted fixed charge for the
game taken on the land, or a public subsidy for use and management
of the land for wildlife as a national resource. The most logical
solution of the ownership problem on lands or streams of exceptional
public value is the acquisition of such property by some suitable pub'
lie agency.
REFUGES AND SANCTUARIES
The management program must include maintenance of wildlife
numbers in balance with the available feed and other environmental
factors. Refuges should be of a temporary rather than permanent
character and under flexible regulation so as to permit prompt ad-
justments with changing needs. The same basic principles for the
protection of the range will apply as for domestic livestock, includ-
ing proper stocking, proper class of stock, proper seasonal use, and
distribution. Many small refuges usually are preferable to a few
large ones in effecting wider distribution of game, in securing a
520 THE WESTERN RANGE
more efficient utilization of the range as a whole between game and
livestock, in better provision for specific needs such as for seasonal
use and in providing for a less cumbersome and more flexible han-
dling of management adjustments.
The present system of licenses and law enforcement is not meet-
ing the requirements of wildlife management. Under it there is a
lack of flexibility which prevents immediate action on problems
which arise. Too often game wardens or commissions lack the legal
authority to handle the game resource effectively. Ranges already
overstocked with game are now handled under laws which are de-
signed primarily to build up numbers. In most States no legal
provision is made to keep game numbers down to the grazing ca-
pacity of specific problem areas. Authorization to issue special
permits with or without restriction as to number or sex of the kill
and to employ a scheme of selection by drawing lots or some other
equally fair system for the distribution of permits is needed in most
States.
It is unfortunate that in most States the selection of game officials
continues to be based on political preference. Really effective game
management cannot be expected until selection of the responsible
personnel is made on merit, usually under a civil-service system.
It is equally important that game management be recognized as a
profession and that a very high percent of the game officials be se-
lected because of technical training in that especial field, coupled
with adequate field experience. Wildlife management courses are
now offered by several universities and should partially meet the
problem of supplying trained men. Special training, broad ex-
perience, and a feeling of security in the job are nowhere more
urgent than in this field.
Another factor in maintenance of forage and of numbers (live-
stock as well as game) is the suitable control of predators and of
rodents. Control should aim toward effecting a balance rather than
to seek extermination and will require careful consideration of re-
lationships and of local needs.
The possibilities of artificial planting of birds, fish, and animals
is by no means exhausted and needs consideration. This fits in
with the idea of maintaining many small refuges, of obtaining a
wider wildlife distribution, and of helping to relieve areas of con-
gestion through removal and transplanting of surplus animals.
However, such planting must avoid conflicts with other essential
uses. Projects should be approved only after careful, thorough
study of the conditions, needs, and possible effects. For example,
the planting of elk in some places has resulted in the overstocking
of ranges badly needed for domestic livestock and injury to adjoin-
ing ranches and farms.
Comprehensive management plans, local, regional, and national,
must be prepared. The aim should be toward restoration and main-
tenance of wildlife habitats and production of wildlife on a sus-
tained yield basis. Only through the preparation of thorough,
systematic plans can this attractive and valuable resource be re-
stored and maintained at a level that will insure maximum contribu-
tions without excessive conflicts with other uses.
MANAGEMENT OF RANGE LANDS 521
A PROGRAM FOR RECREATION
The spiritual, social, and economic importance of recreation as a
form of land use in the West has been shown earlier in this report.
The increase in this form of use has been almost phenomenal. The
number of people so using the national forests, for example, increased
from slightly more than 3' million in 1917 to more than 38 million
in 1934. The national expenditures for such use now exceed 1%
billion dollars annually and both numbers and cost seem definitely
to be increasing. Improvements in automotive transportation and
increases in road mileage where recreational facilities predominate,
as well as increase in leisure time, all lead to the conclusion that
this use will continue to grow.
The open range lands furnish an essential part of the recreational
opportunity of the West. Desert outings during the spring flower
season; dude ranches, based on the perpetuation of the spirit of the
Old West on a de luxe scale; concentrations of use by tourists in
especially attractive canyons; and use in varying degree of an
untold number of resorts and camp grounds are now common and
will increase.
The use of the range country for recreation seldom need interfere
seriously with other uses. On some small areas, where heavy recrea-
tional use might result in pollution of intensively used domestic
water supplies, recreation may have to be restricted or excluded.
Similarly, some wildlife nesting or breeding grounds may have to
be closed to recreational use during critical periods.
Conversely, in some areas of especially high recreational value,
where concentration of people is common, it may be desirable to
exclude livestock at least during some periods of the year. Nor-
mally, water supply intakes for use on camp grounds and heavily
used camping areas should be fenced against livestock if this is a
problem. In such instances the limited value of the forage resource
left unused, as compared to the high recreational values involved,
will leave little basis for objection to such closure. Normally, care-
ful planning will make possible full recreational use without
restricting either livestock or game.
That recreational use is an important source of income to the
range country is coming to be realized. Many ranches which for-
merly depended entirely on livestock for their income now supple-
ment this with the returns from a dude ranching business. In fact,
on many of these ranches the recreational venture now predominates
and the livestock operation is little more than a feature to attract
and entertain the guests. Thus more and more the romance of the
range livestock outfit is being capitalized into a sound, flourishing
industry. The development of recreational use of the range can no
longer be passed aside as an insignificant feature, rather it promises
to be a, major factor in the social and economic life of this country.
Thus, emphasis should lead away from complete closure to livestock
of areas for recreational use. The total forage value of areas which
must be so closed will be so small that grazing capacity of the range
as a whole will not be measurably influenced.
-522 THE WESTEEST KANGE
A PROGRAM FOR FOREST RANGES
Included in the range area is about 154 million acres of forest
land. Approximately 78 million acres of this is capable of pro-
ducing commercial timber. Practically all of the forest-range area
is of importance in watershed protection. It is principally summer
range for cattle, sheep, and wildlife. It is also extensively used for
recreation.
Accordingly, management of the forest-range area presents a
problem of interrelationships of considerable importance to the West
and Nation. Generally, such livestock management as will insure
sustained forage production and the restoration of depleted areas
will also effectively safeguard timber production and other uses.
In some- instances, special silvicultural measures will be necessary.
Overgrazing and improper seasonal use, especially winter grazing
of commercial forest areas where snow remains, must be overcome
where they still prevail. The practice of promiscuous burning, in
an effort to improve forage, wherever it endangers commercial
timber production or important watershed values, must also be
•overcome.
In general, climatic conditions are more favorable on forest ranges
than on the drier types at lower elevations. Accordingly, forage
conditions, if not too seriously depleted, can be restored rather read-
ily under proper management and still permit use of the forage. It
is in the interest of the livestock producer to assure soil and forage
maintenance and such livestock management as will safeguard other
uses of forest lands.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION — A BASIC NEED
Enough information is already available for marked progress in
the program for restoration and management of range lands. To
carry out the program fully and to make it serve most effectively
will, however, require the accumulation of more exact information.
More facts are needed on the true relationship of the range and. its
use for domestic livestock, watershed protection, wildlife, recreation,
and timber production. Improved management principles must be
developed, additional possibilities for artificially reseeding ranges
determined, and other phases of use and management developed.
Economic studies should determine more exactly the social and eco-
nomic relationship of the range and how it can best serve the live-
stock industry, communities, the State, and Nation. A compre-
hensive resource and economic survey to strengthen existing data
is also urgent. Not only should such a survey include an inventory
of the amount and quality of forage available for domestic livestock
and wildlife, watershed conditions, and other resource values, but it
should also provide the basis for the coordination of range use with
crop production and the whole economic structure of integrated
agriculture and dependent communities in the range territory. The
size and importance of the required research program are fully
developed in a later section.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROGRAM
By W. R. CHAPLINE, Chief, and R. S. CAMPBELL, Senior Forest Ecologist, Division
of Range Research
WHY RANGE RESEARCH AND EXTENSION?
Every section of this report, in one way or another, reflects the
inadequacy of present handling of the range resource and the need
for technical information as a basis for range restoration and man-
agement. Lack of knowledge, the inevitable result of the lag of
research, has been an important factor in the widespread over-
grazing, unseasonable use, and other mismanagement now prevailing.
Lacking usable ways of measuring range deterioration, it has often
not been recognized until production failed in critical periods. Con-
sequently, the 38 percent of the Nation's land area in range fails to
yield its maximum wealth and social benefits.
Calf and lamb crops are only one-half or two-thirds as large as
they should be; animals develop poorly; and markets, profits, credit,
and other financial aspects of the livestock industry are adversely
affected. Lands, incapable of supporting families on a satisfactory
living standard, remain in private hands, draining the life savings,
as well as the hopes and aspirations of their owners.
The present flood menace, impaired stream flow, and serious silt-
ing of irrigation and other reservoirs, which directly or indirectly
affect most western communities and nearly 20 million acres of
irrigated lands, have been allowed to develop. These conditions are
chiefly due to deterioration of range cover and the resulting ab-
normal erosion of range lands as indicated by studies so far made.
These studies in turn stress the immediate need for greatly expanded
research to determine the necessary understanding of grazing, soil,
and other watershed relationships.
The conflicts between grazing and wildlife, the destruction of food
and cover, and the silting of streams, have limited hunting, fishing,
and other recreational opportunities.
That such conditions need not prevail has been demonstrated by
the better resource, social, and economic conditions on national for-
ests and on those private ranges where better management, based
on research, has been practiced. Even there, however, the lag of
research has been a tremendous handicap to restoration of range,
watershed, and other values and in securing the maximum return
from sustained production of forage and livestock.
Viewing the range situation in its broader aspects, a program
of research and extension sufficiently comprehensive to meet national,
regional, and local requirements is justified:
1. To develop management principles and other necessary means
to insure restoration, within a reasonable period, of range values
on the 675 million acres — 93 percent of the range area — which is
now depleted.
2. To develop the management principles applicable to the range
area and its component parts which will insure sustained forage and
523
524 THE WESTERN RANGE
livestock production and maximum returns to livestock producers
and the public generally.
3. To develop satisfactory understanding of the interrelation-
ships of the various uses and services of range lands, which include
f razing by domestic livestock and game, timber production on
orest ranges, watershed protection, and recreation; and to deter-
mine adjustments necessary to safeguard values and gain the greatest
public benefits.
4. As a basis for developing sound administrative policies for the
353 million acres of range land now publicly owned or controlled.
5. As a basis for determining what areas should remain in private
ownership and what should be acquired by public agencies because
of submarginality or high public values.
6. As an aid to the private owner of range land and of the live-
stock grazing on all ranges, in restoring range values, improving
management, bettering marketing and credit facilities, equalizing
taxation, developing economic units, integrating range land pro-
duction and use with crop and other related agriculture, and gen-
erally increasing the social and economic security of the 4-billion-
dollar range livestock industry and dependent communities.
7. As an aid in and basis for national, regional, and local land-
use planning and the development of private and public policies,
affecting the range area.
MAJOR LINES or RESEARCH REQUIRED
Research on range lands may be grouped into several broad lines
of work including, among others, range management, artificial re-
vegetation, watershed management, range economics, wildlife, animal
husbandry, and entomology.
RANGE MANAGEMENT
The purpose of range-management studies is to develop methods
of grazing, consistent with the conservation and use of other re-
sources of the land, that will, under the fullest possible use. restore
and maintain the forage and produce livestock most effectively.
Range management as here used is considered to include such funda-
mental research as ecology, soil science, and other botanical studies
essential to an understanding of the growth requirements and growth
habits of range plants, and their response to grazing. It also in-
cludes studies necessary in the development of systems of grazing,
in determinations of grazing capacity and proper seasonal use, in im-
proving methods of handling livestock on the range, and in develop-
ing other features of range use by domestic livestock. These studies
center primarily on the range resource and deal with problems of
handling livestock on the range primarily from the standpoint of
range forage use and more economical handling.
As has been indicated earlier in this report, forage conditions
differ widely throughout the range country; this variation has been
intensified by various degrees of depletion, both of forage and soil,
within each main forage type. Preliminary studies indicate that,
if given the chance, the climax species in each type, generally de-
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROGRAM 525
sirabie grasses and other plants, will maintain themselves or even
improve if not too seriously depleted. In many cases, where the
stand of such plants has been greatly thinned, aggressive secondary
species have occupied the soil, or the soil fertility has seriously
diminished, it will take time and very careful management, adjusted
to growth needs of the better plants, to restore a satisfactory cover.
The complex character of the present problem is illustrated by
the extreme demand for spring-fall range in the intermountaiii
region. Because of abuse the valuable perennial grasses have been
largely replaced by sagebrush and the aggressive annual downy
chess/ or "cheat grass.'' Lacking better feed, stockmen graze this
vegetation during the few weeks it is green and thus prevent the
reestablishment of more valuable perennial grasses, which would
ultimately furnish more abundant feed for a longer period. The
development of management which will accommodate as much as
possible of the grazing demands and yet facilitate restoration of a
better cover, requires study of all the involved factors as well as an
understanding of the practical needs.
PROGRESS AND XEEI>,S
Progress may be grouped into three broad phases: (1) The de-
velopment or improvement of management principles; (2) the de-
termination of some of the more important relationships between
livestock grazing and other uses of the range; and (3) the develop-
ment of some of the fundamental knowledge, basic to the manage-
ment of the range resource.
Under management principles the outstanding results include:
(1) Recognition of the necessity for conservative stocking of ranges
on which perennial bunchgrasses are dominant to assure sustained
forage and livestock production and to provide a feed reserve for
drought contingencies; (2) the development and improvement of
several systems of grazing which, with modifications to meet local
conditions, have rather wide application, such as the deferred and
rotation system which permits full use of the forage but delays
grazing until after seed dissemination on a different portion of the
range each year; (3) important modifications in seasonal use of
mountain ranges to lessen or avoid damage to forage or soil; (4)
a fairly good basis for determining the approximate grazing capac-
ity of the mountain range types and some of the more arid types ;
(5) improved methods for grazing sheep and goats, such as open
and quiet herding, and bedding them down in a new place every
night, to avoid damaging the range through trampling and localized
overgrazing; and (6) obtaining better distribution of cattle on the
range through well-placed watering places and better salting
methods, thus bringing about more even and more effective use of the
available range forage.
The application of these results, particularly on the national
forests, has hastened restoration of depleted ranges and facilitated
better livestock production and greater stability of that portion of
the industry. They illustrate the value and applicability of range
research. The success of these results, however, stresses the oppor-
tunity for still further improvement through research.
526 THE WESTERN RANGE
On the Coconino Plateau in the Southwest and various other locali-
ties, the main causes of damage to timber reproduction from live-
stock grazing have been determined, and principles of management
are being developed which indicate that most of the damage can be
overcome. Much additional research of this kind will be essential
as forest practice and range management become more intensive.
A start has also been made in the Southwest and Intermountain
Regions in determining the general relation between grazing and
watershed protection. Soil is the basic resource. Satisfactory forage
and other growth depends upon its maintenance. Water from range
watersheds is of vital significance to the West. The prevention
of the silting of reservoirs is also outstandingly important. Exces-
sive grazing has so generally impaired watershed values that range -
management research must consider watershed needs.
Only a meager beginning has been made in determining the rela-
tionship between domestic livestock grazing and wildlife conserva-
tion. Most studies have emphasized one phase or the other. The
increasing numbers of wildlife, however, greatly intensify the need
for a full understanding of these relationships.
The quest for fundamental information, which will undoubtedly
furnish the basis for the big advances in potential range manage-
ment, has but begun. Considerable general information, largely
observational, has been collected regarding the forage values of
range plants, based upon the extent to which they are eaten by live-
stock. Similar observations of the habitat relationships of many
of these plants have been made. Their classification and description
are well advanced. The chemical characteristics and poisonous
properties of many of the more important poisonous plants have
been determined. On the other hand, the growth characteristics,
habits, requirements, physiological processes, including the chemistry
of growth, reproduction, food storage, etc., of range plants
and their reaction to grazing, have been studied in detail only for a
few of the most important plants and in a few localities. This is
also true of the competitive relationships, response to climate and
soil, and other requirements of the associations of range plants.
In brief, the research performed to date has furnished a fairly
satisfactory background for a demonstration of proper grazing in
the national forests through determination of a few of the main
principles underlying forest-range management. It has made, in
a few places, a satisfactory beginning on some of the fundamental
problems underlying forage development and use. In several locali-
ties research has shown that damage to forest reproduction and
watersheds may become very serious; it has indicated, in part at
least, the remedial or control measures which are effective.
Future work, requiring most emphasis, includes a more compre-
hensive and fundamental determination of: (1) The palatability
and nutrition value of each of the plants which compose the range
forage; (2) the life histories and ecological relationships of all
forage plants and associations; and (3) the ecological and physio-
logical reaction of all plants to livestock use. The results of these
three groups of investigations will be invaluable guides in applied
research and in the application of range management.
The outstanding problems of applied research concern the further
perfection of systems of grazing and a more exact determination
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROGRAM 527
of grazing capacity, including the effect of its many influencing
factors, and the perfection of livestock management on the range.
All research, however, whether fundamental or applied, must con-
stantly consider such primary requisites as preservation of soil and
cover conditions so essential not only to the production of maximum
forage crops but also for satisfactory maintenance of other land uses
and services.
ARTIFICIAL KEVEGETATION
The principal objective in artificial re vegetation research is to de~
velop low-cost methods and suitable species for seeding or trans-
planting on 38 million acres of range lands now so badly depleted
that reasonably rapid natural revegetation appears improbable. At
least one-fourth of this depleted area consists of abandoned fields
where cultivation has completely destroyed the native sod. Both
forage for livestock and watershed protection values are at stake.
If suitable species and low-cost methods can be developed for large
areas of semiarid range, the total acreage to which these investiga-
tions would apply would be greatly augmented.
PEOGEESS AND NEEDS
Various tests of cultivated species, already in use in more humid
parts of the United States, have been made on certain western moun-
tain ranges. Kentucky bluegrass and timothy, among others, have
proven adapted to favorable sites where soil and moisture conditions
are satisfactory. A badly denuded range in the Wasatch Mountains
of central Utah, for example, which required about 10 acres to sup-
port a sheep for 3 months, was sown to Kentucky bluegrass ; at the
end of the ninth year 1 acre of this artificially reseeded range would
support a sheep for the 3-month season. Crested wheatgrass and
smooth brpmegrass have proven of value for use under somewhat
drier conditions on northern ranges. Most of the seeding tests, how-
ever, indicated that the plants tried were unadapted, especially on
semiarid areas. ^ It is just as important to ascertain that certain
plants are unsuitable as it is to determine which ones can be used,,
in order to avoid useless expenditures on large-scale attempts at arti-
ficial reseeding.
A few of the more important native grasses, such as slender wheat-
grass and mountain brome, have proved especially valuable for range
reseeding purposes ; several other herbaceous plants and some shrubs
have demonstrated their worth for reseeding or transplanting for
erosion control.
As yet no satisfactory plant material has been found for artifi-
cially reseeding semiarid ranges; transplanting under such condi-
tions is costly. Notwithstanding, millions of acres of those lands
demand rapid restoration because of large dependent values for
watershed protection, livestock, and game. The spring and fall
ranges in the foothills are of even more critical importance, as but
few species have been found suitable for such conditions.
Studies have been conducted in only a few localities of sufficient
intensity to determine why artificial reseeding has succeeded or
failed. Such investigations are needed, however, in all parts of the
West.
528 THE WESTERN RANGE
Search for promising forage and erosion-control plants should be
made in all foreign countries having growth and climatic conditions
comparable to our western range area in order, if possible, to supple-
ment the few adaptable introductions now available and the promis-
ing native species. Plant breeding, selection, and hybridization, as
applied to range species and conditions, hold untold possibilities.
High-yielding and disease-resistant strains of wheat and other
grains, as well as fruits, have been developed through research.
Comparable experimentation with native and introduced range
vegetation should yield similar returns and the long hoped for
drought-resistant forage plants now so urgently needed for restora-
tion of range and watershed values.
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
The main objective of range watershed research is to perfect meth-
ods of managing ranges that will afford essential watershed protec-
tion, including delivery of the greatest supply of usable water, con-
trol of erosion, and regulation of stream flow. The determination
of methods for managing impaired watersheds to restore their utility
is a distinct phase of the problem.
Research, to date, has disclosed that perennial herbaceous vegeta-
tion, especially grasses, is the most effective cover for erosion control
on semidesert untimbered ranges of the Southwest and on alpine
watersheds in central Utah. Such cover is also very important in
the open pine stands of Idaho. Research has also indicated the value
of restoring the herbaceous cover on depleted ranges in reducing
surface run-off and erosion from summer rains, in increasing absorp-
tion of precipitation by the soil, in checking summer flash floods,
and in improving the productive capacity of the watersheds. It has
also given some indication, in a few localities, of the value of erosion-
control dams, water-diversion works, contour terraces, debris basins,
and other similar engineering works.
These rather localized investigations indicate the, great value of
such research in correcting a situation which has become critical
over most of the West. Similar studies should be undertaken in all
other important range types and watershed conditions. Depletion
is so general that the extent, nature, and causes of present water-
shed impairment and usable indicators of early watershed deteriora-
tion should be defined so that remedial measures may be promptly
applied.
Although restoration to virgin conditions is undoubtedly desir-
able, it will be, at best, a long and slow process in many areas.
Accordingly, definite data are needed concerning the most practical
cover which can be obtained rather promptly for reasonably satis-
factory watershed protection. Determination of the optimum water-
shed cover for each important condition, however, is also essential.
The range cover on watersheds is so closely interrelated to the
range livestock industry and the social and economic welfare of the
West that additional research is required to determine how much
the cover may be modified or utilized without sacrificing its ability
to retard run-off, build and bind the soil, aid water percolation, and
otherwise control erosion and stream flow.
KBSEAKCH AND EXTENSION PROGKAM 529
RANGE ECONOMICS
The major work to date has featured studies of wool production,
livestock-production costs in several States, surveys, and a few in-
tensive investigations of ranch organization and management, de-
termination of the basis for grazing fees on the national forests,
local land-use studies, and preliminary phases of other economic
aspects.
One important phase which justifies early initiation is a compre-
hensive range-resource and economic survey involving such features
as the area, location, and ownership of range land, its actual and
potential grazing capacity, and the most effective coordination of
the use of range land with other agricultural land. The results in
this report have provided a conception of the national and regional
extent of the resource, of some of the vital economic problems in
range use, and of broad social and economic changes which must be
made. It is clearly evident that a more intensive survey providing
for an inventory of the range resources and more exact information
concerning changes needed is essential to furnish the basis for
further national, regional, and local land use and agricultural plan-
ning and adjustment. Many of the surveys already completed for
development of management plans or recommended in other parts
of this report will aid materially in the assembling of necessary
information.
Additional studies of production costs and ranch organization are
needed to disclose the most economic size of enterprise, the proper
balance between range and crops, and how ranch organization may
be revised to produce livestock, livestock products, and feeds more
economically. Closely related to these are the needs for studies of
range-land use, especially the determination of lands submarginal
for private ownership. The range-livestock industry will further
benefit from more detailed investigations of credits, marketing, taxa-
tion, and other financial entanglements which encumber the business.
WILDLIFE
Most research on wildlife has concerned taxonomic relationships,
the food habits of a few major species, and the control of injurious
rodents and predators. The outstanding problem is to provide a
technical background for the restoration and maintenance of desir-
able wildlife. This should be supplemented by closely related re-
search on life habits and the specific place of each species in its en-
vironment. Such basic knowledge will be of great significance in
the development of a really effective technology of conservation and
control.
If wildlife for food, fur, or recreation is to be produced on the
range, where it rightfully belongs — in fact as the maintenance of the
desired biological balance in certain cases obligates — particular ad-
vantage will result from sustained output. What numbers can be
maintained and what may be removed annually without reducing
breeding stocks below the safety point must be determined. When
these things are known, limitations may be placed on season, age,
sex, and numbers that can be removed, based on an understanding
64946 — 36 35
530 THE WESTERN RANGE
of the life histories and ecological relationships of the animal con-
cerned. That method would be far more permanent and secure
than the unsatisfactory empirical foundation upon which existing
game laws in the United States are based.
Research should also determine existent values and necessary ad-
justments in other wildlife. Birds, for example, may spread plant
diseases and consume seeds; on the other hand, they also plant
seeds and prevent or shorten insect epidemics by preying upon in-
jurious insects. Burrowing rodents improve the tilth of soils.
Rodents, however, consume enormous quantities of forage. Preda-
tory animals, such as coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions, although
beneficial in their consumption of rodents, often destroy so much
livestock that they seriously affect business profits. Control of
wildlife detrimental to range and livestock must depend upon the
ecological relationships of each animal and its life habits, such as
preferences for food.
All problems involving ecological relationships, life histories,
protection, and wildlife management, must be attacked not as dis-
tinct studies which in themselves are final objectives, but rather
as parts of a much broader system of range-land management, which
includes forage for livestock as well as wildlife, watershed protec-
tion, timber production, recreation, and possibly other uses and
services of the land.
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
The improvement of breeding herds and flocks on the range and
the control of diseases constitute the outstanding achievements in
range animal husbandry. Much still remains to be accomplished,
however, in improving livestock types for range use through selec-
tion and breeding, in controlling diseases and parasites which affect
range animals, and in studying the economic wintering of range
livestock. Improved nutrition for range animals offers tremendous
research possibilities, especially since forage depletion necessitates
the grazing of many secondary or even low-value species and involves
the feeding of essential minerals and other supplements.
ENTOMOLOGY
Range entomology and other special phases of zoological research
may be justified where high economic values are at stake. Cases
in point include the beet leafhopper and locust infestations in many
parts of the West, where the pests breed chiefly on overgrazed range
lands and often migrate to nearby irrigated areas, thus causing
great damage both to the range forage and cultivated crops.
COORDINATED RESEARCH
The preceding program of research on range lands has empha-
sized individual lines of investigation with only minor reference
to the relationship of one to another, but the inter-relationship of
problems and work is obvious. Sound principles of management
can be devised only by coordinated study that weighs all values
and utilizes the fundamental sciences which bear upon the problem.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROGRAM 531
Since the range problem is agricultural, its research must logically
be coordinated closely with allied research of the Department of
Agriculture and the State agricultural experiment stations.
EXTENSION
Range extension consists primarily of educational and demonstra-
tional work designed to disseminate practical information concerning
range management. It seeks also to spread applicable knowledge of
range management among the owners, users, and managers of range
lands and to demonstrate and interpret desirable range-use practices
adapted to local conditions in order that range lands may perform
their fullest potential services, both economic and social.
A limited amount of such work has been handled by extension live-
stock specialists and some county agents with desirable results in most
of the Western States. Considering the widespread depletion on
privately owned ranges, direct assistance to individual range-livestock
owners, in formulating management plans and applying improved
range practices should be at the fore of any such program. A sound
management plan is just as essential for proper handling of the range
as is a blue print in building construction. Extension workers should
provide stockmen with the latest research results on revegetating the
range, on stocking to safeguard against drought losses — in fact, on all
the results of the previously outlined studies. Extension also might
well popularize cost-keeping systems. The net result of this extension
work would be a much-needed coordination of individual welfare and
production with regional and national requirements.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR AND COST or RESEARCH AND EXTENSION REQUIRED
The Federal Government has direct responsibility in range research
on Federal lands, on national problems, and on regional problems.
The 287 million acres of federally owned or controlled range lands
require research as the basis for sound management. The 67-percent
depletion on unreserved public domain and grazing districts occurred
under Federal jurisdiction, and implies Federal responsibility for
restoration. Many of the range problems have national and regional
significance. The use of range lands as a part of the integrated agri-
culture of the West has never been fully appreciated, but its impor-
tance is outstanding, not only to the West but to the Nation. Thus,
from all aspects, the Federal Government has a responsibility to carry
the major burden of research and at least half the burden of extension
on western range lands.
Federal research on range problems is conducted primarily by the
Department of Agriculture ; the Bureau of the Census has compiled
valuable statistical data, and the Tariff Commission has made certain
studies of wool and livestock production. The McSweeney-McNary
Forest Research Act of 1928 authorized range investigations, and
under its provisions and the general authorizations of the agricultural
appropriation acts the Forest Service has conducted a coordinated
attack on range management, artificial revegetation, watershed man-
agement, and certain phases of range economics. Such research is
now in progress at five of the six regional forest and range experi-
532 THE WESTERN KANGE
ment stations in the West. Other research has been handled inde-
pendently or in cooperation with the Forest Service by the Bureaus
of Plant Industry, Animal Industry, Agricultural Economics, Bio-
logical Survey, Chemistry and Soils, Soil Conservation Service,
Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and the Weather Bureau.
The States have a responsibility for range research on State-owned
range lands and on local problems. States are also coming to recog-
nize their responsibilities for cooperation with the Federal Gov-
ernment in handling the regional and national problems. All of the
State agricultural experiment stations of the 17 western range States
have done some work on range problems. Although some of this
research has been conducted independently, much has been carried
on in cooperation with one or more bureaus of the United States
Department of Agriculture.
A broad field of fundamental scientific investigation is open tc
quasi-public and private research institutions. Many botanists, zool-
ogists, and other scientific workers in colleges and universities have
given incidental attention to problems which directly or indirectly
affect range vegetation and animal life. Much of the early taxo-
nomic research on range plants was performed in this way, and con-
siderable similar work still continues. Many important discoveries
in plant physiology, ecology, and biology have been made by uni-
versity experimenters. Research opportunities along these lines are
practically unlimited, and when combined with graduate work of
men in training for range-research positions, may further the entire
program. Such agencies as the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, the Southwestern
Arboretum, and similar though less prominent agencies may all
contribute advantageously to the range-research program.
In developing such a comprehensive program of research a highly
trained personnel will be essential. Much of the research up to the
present has been preliminary and empirical. That of the future
should be more concerned with fundamentals. The demand for
well-trained college graduates in range-management work has always
been good. For research positions, men with advanced training
and of exceptional ability will be needed. To facilitate the de-
velopment of such men, additional fellowships should be established.
They should be available only to the more able men and centered
in the stronger institutions.
PRESENT EXPENDITURES
Present expenditures by all agencies for research on range-land
problems total approximately $750,000. Expenditures of the De-
partment of Agriculture cover most of this, primarily centered in
the Forest Service.
It is estimated that present expenditures for range extension
aggregate approximately $50,000 annually, wholly insufficient when
distributed, although not equally, among 17 States. It is practically
impossible to estimate the actual cost because so much of the work
has been handled more or less incidentally to other extension
activities.
KESEARCH AND EXTENSION PROGKAM 533
PROPOSED EXPENDITURES
In view of the lag in range research, the present depleted condi-
tion of the resource, natural factors retarding range restoration, and
the multiplicity of range problems now requiring study, an annual
expenditure about four times the present as a 10-year program ap-
pears necessary. Of the total annual expenditures of $2,750,000
required for all research on range lands, which should be reached
by 1947, the program of the Department of Agriculture would
account for about $2,000,000 annually. States should assume respon-
sibility for approximately $550,000 and other agencies about $200,-
000. Ten years is a reasonable period in which to expand the
research of the agencies involved to the full extent of this contem-
plated program.
Authorizations for such a research program in the United States
Department of Agriculture are already provided in the Agricul-
tural Appropriation Acts and in the McSweeney-McNary Forest
Research Act. The latter act authorizes annual appropriations of
$275,000 for "range investigations" (primarily management and
artificial re vegetation) up to the fiscal year 1938, and after that year
for "such annual appropriations as may thereafter be necessary.''
Specific legislative authorization of at least $400,000 for the range
watershed management investigations is desirable, either independ-
ently or as a component part of the proposed national program for
watershed research on forest and range lands.
In addition to the above amounts needed for the western United
States, funds are required for range research in the South and in
Alaska. Probably, $200,000 annually would meet the needs during
the next 10 years for investigations dealing with range use of south-
ern forest lands, with the full amount to be reached in the tenth year.
In Alaska, approximately $100,000 annually will be needed.
The promotion of satisfactory management on the 376 million
acres of ranges now in private ownership and of privately owned
livestock grazing on publicly owned ranges requires the development
of an extension organization during the next 10 years costing ap-
proximately $1,000,000 annually. This involves a joint participa-
tion by both the Federal and State Governments, supplementing the
existing Extension Service activities. Since county agents and ex-
tension specialists are heavily burdened with other duties, the exten-
sion program on range-land problems should be carried out by either
assistant county agents trained in range management or range special-
ists each serving several counties as a unit. Supervision should be
furnished by the addition of range specialists to both State and
Federal Extension forces.
LEGISLATION AND COSTS
By S. B. SHOW, Regional Forester, California Region, and E. I. KOTOK, Director,
California Forest and Range Experiment Station
A group of major problems requiring legislative action for solu-
tion have been stated earlier in this report. The problems concern
handicaps faced by the private owner and operator which have tended
to encourage mistreatment of land and to create an unstable business.
They concern the public interest in continued productivity and full
use of range lands and their resources. They concern, too, the ques-
tion of managing public range lands so they will serve both private
and public needs.
Part of these problems require Federal legislation, if a serious
effort is to be made to fulfill the possibilities of the range; others
can be solved by State legislation. Within each of these broad
classes, some needs stand out as immediately urgent, while others
though important can wait for attention. In the following pages
these problems are briefly reviewed and the needful legislation is
recommended. Under each recommended piece of legislation is indi-
cated the conclusion of this report as to immediate urgency.
PROBLEMS KEQUIRING FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE ACTION
PROBLEMS AFFECTING PUBLIC DOMAIN AND GRAZING DISTRICTS
IN WHAT DEPARTMENT TO PLACE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MANAGEMENT OF FEDERAL
RANGE LANDS
At present, public range lands are administered by two separate
agencies, one in the Department of Agriculture, one in the Depart-
ment of the Interior. The public ranges, whether on national forests
or on public domain, are inseparable parts of a whole. To be most
valuable in the national economy, as evidence brought out earlier has
shown, both should be used with private range and crop lands to
build up balanced sustained-yield livestock production units of eco-
nomic size. No matter how sincerely departmental coordination is
sought, a single task clearly cannot be most effectively accomplished
through split jurisdiction.
Recommended legislation. — The management of the public range
lands and their resources is primarily a problem of conserving or-
ganic resources. On solution of it depends the permanent stability
of much western agriculture, and the economy of the whole range
region. Not only the forage resource, but soil conservation, water-
shed protection, and wildlife management, all a part of the range
problem, are a recognized part of agriculture and are within the
recognized jurisdictional fields of the Department of Agriculture.
The fact that large areas of range lands require multiple-purpose
535
536 THE WESTERN RANGE
land management, a mode of control long established in the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, likewise indicates that Department as the most
effective agency to administer; all federally owned range lands, ex-
cluding those on the Indian reservations managed but now owned
by the Federal Government.
WHETHER TO PLACE ALL PUBLIC DOMAIN TTNDEB PERMANENT FEDERAL MANAGEMENT
At present, under the Grazing Act of June 28, 1934, only about half
of the public domain (80 million acres out of 162 million acres) can
be organized into grazing districts. This provision has the effect of
blocking administration of large areas of range lands in which the
Federal Government is the principal owner. Such areas are thereby
left subject to the mounting ill effects of unrestricted grazing, which
any close observer may readily forecast. In other areas, predomi-
nantly in private ownership, the remaining public domain forms but
a small part, and an attempt to manage it would affect but little the
area as a whole.
Federal management as provided by the Grazing Act might ap-
parently be insecure, since section 1 of the act contains the clause,
applicable to all lands, "pending the final disposal."
Recommended legislation. — The limitation on the area to be re-
served should be removed, so that all suitable public-range land
can be placed under management at once.
Public domain within areas which study shows to be unsuited for
Federal range units should, instead of remaining open to patent
under the land-disposal laws, be set aside subject to exchange for
the purpose of acquiring private or State lands within grazing dis-
tricts or national forests. Since building up of the range on the graz-
ing districts will require capital investments, and since the remaining
public domain is ill-adapted to private ownership, the implication
contained in the words "pending the final disposal" should be removed
from the law.
This legislation is of great immediate urgency.
WHETHER RANGES ON FEDERAL RESERVATIONS OTHER THAN NATIONAL FORESTS AND
GRAZING DISTRICTS SHOULD BE ADMINISTERED
On the national parks and national monuments grazing is generally
recognized as inconsistent with the primary purposes of the reserva-
tion. On the Indian lands, management of the ranges is highly im-
portant as an integral part of the whole job of administration. Plans
already formed contemplate a type of management to make the range
lands more fully serve the needs of the Indians.
But other large areas of Federal lands, primarily valuable as range
land, are removed from entry as reclamation withdrawals, as military
and naval reservations, as oil, phosphate, and coal reservations, and as
reservations for lighthouse purposes. On such lands use of the range
is generally not inconsistent with the primary purpose of withdrawal.
On some of the reservations grazing is already permitted under a
leasing system tending toward range depletion. On others grazing
is as unregulated as on the public domain.
Recommended legislation. — Unless already fully authorized, pro-
vision should be made that, with concurrence of and under conditions
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 537
set by the Secretary of primary jurisdiction, the range-administering
agency or agencies of the Department of Agriculture may undertake
the job of range management on any Federal reservation.
This legislation is important but not immediately urgent.
RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES IN GRAZING ACT
The Grazing Act of June 28, 1934, sets up the following provisions :
1. A clause in section 3 forbids denial of renewal of a permit if such
action will impair the value of a mortgaged livestock operation.
This provision has the effect of placing a premium on indebtedness,
and invites misuse of indebtedness. It tends to continue inflated
value for key tracts, such as waterholes, controlling large areas of
range. It could be used to nullify efforts to obtain a distribution of
permits which would most effectively stabilize use of the range and
dependent communities.
2. The first part of the second sentence, and the last sentence of
section 3 might be construed to establish and perpetuate grazing use
as a permanent right, based on past and present occupancy and on
ownership of water or water rights. These provisions are so am-
biguous, however, that an unequivocal interpretation is impossible.
If the apparent intent of these sections is the true one they have the
effect of preventing the planned redistribution of grazing privileges
that would enable individual operations of economic size to be built
up, and of nullifying efforts to change the form of use where high
and critically important public values are involved. In effect, they
label the grazing districts as for the exclusive use of range livestock.
3. Section 15 establishes a minimum area of 640 acres in a single
isolated tract that may be leased. There are a great many such
tracts smaller than 640 acres which should not or may not be sold
and should be leased, at least temporarily.
Recommended legislation. — The provisions cited under 1 and 2
above should be clarified or repealed. The minimum limit of 640
acres in a single tract that may be leased should be repealed. This
legislation is immediately urgent.
AUTHORITY OVER GRAZING DISTRICTS
The first part of the second sentence of section 1 and section 16 of
the Grazing Act of June 28, 1934, might be construed to make the
State authority supersede the regulation of the Secretary on certain
subjects and thereby materially to restrict the Federal Government
in the regulation of range use on the grazing districts.
Recommended legislation. — These provisions should be repealed or
the language clarified. Such legislation is of immediate importance.
CONSOLIDATIONS WITH NATIONAL FORESTS
The act makes no provision for giving grazing-district or public-
domain land national-forest status, except in three States where it
can already be done by Executive order, although careful study has
shown that 26 million acres of Federal land should be added to round
out livestock and game range units already chiefly in national forests,
simplify administration, or include timber-producing lands.
538 THE WESTERN RANGE
Recommended legislation. — Provision for the transfer of grazing-
district land to national-forest status by action of the President on
recommendation of the National Forest Reservation Commission,
and the Secretary of Agriculture, should be made. This legislation
is of immediate importance.
WHETHER TO MANAGE FEDERAL RANGE LAND WITH THE SINGLE PURPOSE OF FURNISH-
ING FORAGE FOR DOMESTIC STOCK OR UNDER THE PRINCIPLE OF MULTIPLE USE WITH
FULL ATTENTION TO ALL THEIR RESOURCES
A large part of the Federal range possesses high public values for
watershed protection, soil conservation, habitat for wildlife and rec-
reation. Since the practicality of multiple-purpose land manage-
ment has been amply demonstrated on the national forests, the
question must be sharply raised why a comparable guiding principle
should not apply to other public ranges.
Recommended legislation. — The broad guiding policy should b«
definitely established that all Federal range lands are to be man-
aged for the benefit of all the people concerned, rather than for any
one class. This policy implies that they will be managed under the
principle of multiple use, by means of which all resources can be
given full attention as local or regional conditions indicate. Even
though on most range lands forage for domestic stock is the dominant
or even exclusive use, the single-purpose management principle
should be avoided. The obvious fact that diversified local economy,
like diversified farming, is more stable in the long run than single-
crop economy or agriculture, dictates coordinated use of all resources,
and therefore multiple -purpose management of lands. Moreover,
multiple-purpose management is necessarily conservative manage-
ment, and insures perpetuation of the range resource. Clearly this
is to the long-time financial advantage of the livestock operator and
the public alike.
Legislation to establish this principle of management is of im-
mediate urgency.
PROBLEMS OF TRANSFERRING PRIVATE LANDS TO FEDERAL OWNERSHIP
A further group of problems is concerned with the most effective
steps which the public can take through increased ownership of
range lands, to assist in stabilizing the range livestock business, and
to protect the public interest in the 728 million acres of range land.
They include the following :
WHAT DISPOSITION TO MAKE OF LANDS PURCHASED BY FEDERAL AGENCIES IN ORDER
TO RETIRE THEM FROM AGRICULTURAL CROP USE
Restoration to range use of cropped land, unwisely subtracted
from the finest range land, is an existing policy and program of
the Federal Government. Whether to pass these lands again to
private ownership, with the danger of repeating the cycle of im-
proper use and depletion, or to consolidate them with other Federal
range lands now owned or to be acquired and managed, is the
question.
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 539
The land-purchase program of the Resettlement Administration
includes formerly cropped land, for which the most effective use is
as range lands.
That most such lands should be repassed to private ownership,
with all the dangers of repeating the cycle of misuse and depletion,
seems very doubtful. Rather it would appear desirable to retain
much of them in public ownership, consolidate them with existing
and future Federal range units and place them under the manage-
ment of the Department and Bureau designated to handle such lands.
Recommended legislation. — The Secretary of Agriculture should,
unless his authority is already clear, be empowered to determine
whether such lands are qualified as to kind, character, location, and
quantity, to become a part of Federal range or forest units. If he
finds affirmatively, his action in so conferring the lands should
be final.
This legislation is of immediate importance.
WHETHER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHALL ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TO ACQUIRE AND
MANAGE RANGE LANDS SUBMARGINAL FOR PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
To the extent that the several States are unwilling or unable to
undertake the task, the acquisition by the Federal Government of
range lands submarginal for private ownership is the most effective
way to free operators from a burden which robs their business of
financial stability and impedes conservation of the range resources.
That the problem exists on a very large scale is well known, and the
questions are primarily how large it is and by what means of public
action it is to be solved.
A realistic approach will naturally recognize the inability of private
ownership to solve a problem which forces beyond its control have
largely created, and will take into account as well the fact that
rehabilitation costs and low immediate income makes such an invest-
ment in long-term economy desirable for only the strongest units of
government.
Recommended legislation, — The law should declare that private
range lands which, because of financial pressure, cannot be adequately
managed by private ownership, should be acquired and managed by
public agencies. Range lands purchased by the Resettlement 'Admin-
istration should be included. There should be a declaration that deci-
sion in each State as to whether the State or the Federal Government
should undertake all or each a part of the whole job will be made by
negotiation between appropriate State and Federal agencies.
For effectuation of the acquisition program determined as the Fed-
eral share, State consent as provided for timberland purchases should
be a prerequisite. The National Forest Reservation Commission
should be designated and empowered, as a competent existing agency,
upon recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture to determine
with finality the boundaries of Federal range-land purchase units and
to settle all matters of purchase policy.
This legislation is of great immediate urgency.
540 THE WESTERN RANGE
WHETHEB FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHALL ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TO ACQUIRE AND
MANAGE RANGE LANDS POSSESSING HIGH PUBLIC VALUES WHICH CANNOT BE
PRESERVED AND TEND TO DETERIORATE UNDER PRIVATE OWNERSHIP
Where high public values exist on range lands, land-management
costs to conserve them ordinarily means relinquishment of immediate
income. Since machinery is lacking to reimburse private ownership
for such self-denial and self -discipline, the job of land ownership and
management falls naturally to public agencies.
The answer to the question, then, must take into account whether
interstate values are involved, whether States are financially equipped
to handle, and similar considerations.
Recommended legislation. — The law should declare that private
lands vested with high watershed protection, wildlife range, or recrea-
tion values which cannot be adequately preserved and which tend to
deteriorate under private ownership should be acquired and managed
by public agencies.
Procedure in determining the share of the State and Federal Gov-
ernments, and in effectuating the agreed-on Federal responsibility,
should be the same as under the section above.
This legislation is of immediate urgency.
SETTING OF FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS
IN THE MATTER OF RETURNING PART OF INCOME FROM THE LANDS TO LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
As part of the Federal undertaking in range ownership, both pres-
ent and future, a question of very real moment is how much of the
income should be returned to local government in lieu of taxes. The
plan of returning 25 percent of gross income from the national forests
has been followed for many years. Studies so far made of the opera-
tion of this plan have shown it to be on the whole fair and equitable.
Additional study of the entire question is needed, especially since on
Federal lands in general the return to local government now varies
from nothing on some kinds of reservations and on the unadminis-
tered public domain to 50 percent in the grazing districts.
Recommended legislation. — Further study should be provided for
determination of a fair division of income with local government,
and then legislation to effectuate the conclusion will be needed.
This legislation will then be of immediate importance.
CONSOLIDATING OWNERSHIP WITHIN GRAZING DISTRICTS AND WITHIN NATIONAL
FORESTS
The task of consolidating ownership in and adjacent to grazing
districts and national forests is a formidable one. One important
means to speed up the process is through the exchange of lands of
equal value or the use of the range over a limited period of years as a
base for exchange in the acquisition of private lands needed to round
out public holdings. This principle of action has already been set
in the exchange legislation long used in handling the comparable
problems of consolidating timberland ownership in the national
forests and has worked successfully.
Recommended legislation. — Broadening legislative authority is
highly and immediately desirable.
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 541
FACILITATING DONATION OF LANDS TO THE UNITED STATES
Many owners of range land would willingly donate their prop-
erties to the United States in order to avoid heavy carrying costs
and so that the productivity of the lands might be restored. That
few donations are made is due to the legal cost to the private owner
of furnishing title, and the common accumulation of unpaid taxes,
without the satisfaction of which title acceptable to the United
States cannot be given.
Recommended legislation. — The United States should be author-
ized, in connection with donations of range lands which fit into Fed-
eral range units, to pay the legal cost of title, and if necessary to
clear title, to pay accumulated taxes in whole or in part. In no case
should the sum of these payments exceed the appraised value of the
property.
SIMPLIFICATION OF BOUNDARY CHANGES
An act of Congress is now required to extend boundaries of na-
tional forests in most of the Western States, and such action is often
taken only after a measure has been considered several times. Since
many States have already passed acts authorizing the Federal Gov-
ernment to acquire land for national forests, it has become increas-
ingly evident that most of the former opposition to national forests
has been replaced by active support. More expeditious machinery
for boundary changes is therefore needed.
Recommended legislation. — The President should be authorized
upon recommendation of the National Forest Reservation Commis-
sion to add to the national forests from lands owned by the United
States, land areas determined by the Secretary of Agriculture to be
chiefly valuable for national forest purposes and which can be
economically administered as parts of national forests.
This legislation is immediately desirable.
BESEEVATION OF SURFACE BIGHTS IN MINING-LAW PATENTS
Existing mining law, because of the wide variety of materials
which can be "located" and patented, readily permits holding key
areas required for public use, even though no show of a profitable
mining operation is made. Such key tracts are often vital in eco-
nomic and efficient use of the range.
Recommended legislation. — Separation of surface and subsurface
rights in mineral claims and patents, leaving title and use of the
former to the United States except to the degree required for oper-
ation of the mining claim, is highly desirable.
THE PROBLEM OF LAND-DISPOSAL LAW
Existing public-land laws, having as their effect the passage to
private ownership of (1) lands poorer in quality than lands already
a problem in private ownership, and (2) lands possessing key value
in controlling use of surrounding lands, are generally recognized
as archaic.
Recommended legislation. — Although there is every indication
that the transfer of land from Federal to private ownership is now
542 THE WESTERN RANGE
largely history, the danger is always present that the mistakes of
the past will be repeated if existing statutes remain in effect. New
legislation should take into account such things as the desirable
line between public and private ownership, the phase of agriculture
for which the land is best suited, the size of the unit required, etc.
With the exception of the mineral lands, there should be a clear
declaration of intent to retain in public ownership all lands not
affirmatively found to be adapted to private ownership. The finding
of adaptability should be based on land classification made by a
professionally competent agency under the Secretary of Agricul-
ture. The classification should take into account the true income-
producing value of the land in the local economy, the probable cost
of ownership and management, the degree to which public values
are present and require affirmative action to preserve, and the
record of similar lands in the region already passed to private
ownership.
That there should be marked differences in size of unit between
highly productive irrigated lands and range lands is obvious. The
danger of attempting to set up large units of range lands when all
of the better lands and many million acres of poor land have gone
into private ownership is that it will lead to exactly the same kind
of maladjustments that have repeatedly occurred under the existing
laws.
About genuine land classification as a prerequisite there can be no
question, but beyond that much more intensive study is needed as a
basis for any thoroughly satisfactory recommendations.
This legislation is desirable but not immediately urgent.
PROBLEMS IN FEDERAL ASSISTANCE TO PRIVATE OWNERS
A group of problems involves various existing programs of the
Federal Government in the field of assistance to private owners.
PROBLEMS OF STRENGTHENING THE ATTENTION OP RESEARCH AGENCIES TO PROBLEMS
OF RANGE LANDS AND OF THE RANGE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRIES
The State agricultural colleges and experiment stations and the
forest and range experiment stations of the Forest Service have
under way research projects in the field of range and livestock man-
agement. But the program as a whole is seriously inadequate to meet
genuine needs.
Recommended legislation. — Insofar as the national range research
program is concerned, no basic legislation is needed except on the
watershed phase.
THE PROBLEM OF EXTENSION MAKING THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH MORE READILY
AVAILABLE TO LIVESTOCK OPERATORS
The information obtained through the range research programs
should be of great advantage to range livestock operators. But sys-
tematic public effort to make facts readily available and in most
usable form is required. The previous effort in extension has not met
this need, since extension work in most of the States has been
LEGISLATION AXD COSTS 543
devoted primarily to needs of crop agriculture. Full-time range
specialists are needed.
Recommended legislation. — An annual program to effectuate plans
to place extension work on an adequate basis is immediately
desirable.
THE PROBLEM OF CREDITS
The existing Federal credit structure — Farm Credit Administra-
tion, intermediate credit banks, and other corporations — is designed
to meet the credit needs of all agriculture, including the range live-
stock business. This report has made no attempt to determine
whether the existing machinery and its operations are fully adapted
to the requirements of the livestock industry. Any legislation affect-
ing the purely banking features of the existing structures should be
initiated by and follow the recommendations of the Farm Credit
Administration. It is, however, highly desirable that, if constitu-
tional, the law should recognize as a contractual quid pro quo the
general policy that loans will be made only on a basis of conservative
use of lands, and that failure of the borrower to follow out agree-
ments will, be cause for cancelation of loans.
The ruling of the Supreme Court that control of agriculture by
the Federal Government is unconstitutional may possibly prevent
such a program because of the unconstitutionally of the essential
requirement that the landowner be required to practice good range
management in order to be eligible for Federal assistance. Never-
theless, since the true collateral for long-term loans is perpetual pro-
ductivity of land, the necessary provisions to insure this are clearly
an indispensable feature of sound banking practice.
This study has reached no conclusions as to immediate need for
revision of farm-credit laws.
PROBLEM OF MARKETING
Public aid in marketing has thus far taken the form of commit-
ment to the principles of cooperative marketing, construction of
better highways, agricultural extension, studies of freight rates,
market differentials, price fluctuations, regional livestock production,
and prevention of price lowering and excessive service charges at
terminal livestock markets.
This study has reached no conclusion as to possible increase in
lines of public assistance already undertaken or as to possible new
means of assistance.
PROBLEM OF PRODUCTION CONTROL
This study has not attempted to determine the need for control
of production from the standpoint of consumptive needs, or lack of
it, since the entire field has been covered by the Agricultural Adjust-
ment Administration and the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of
the Department of Agriculture. Nor has the study dealt with the
question of whether or not any particular formula for production
control is an effective one. The attempt at control through the
Agricultural Adjustment Administration has been stopped by the
544 THE WESTERN RANGE
Supreme Court ruling already mentioned. What the public may be
able to do remains to be seen, but it seems likely that control of pro-
duction in some form has come to stay. Its name may change ; legal
necessity has changed its form and may do so again ; but the loss of
most of the export market has made permanent the essential need of
avoiding unmanageable surpluses.
Recommended* legislation. — Thus, whether production control is
needed and, if so, what formula should be employed, are questions
for appropriate agencies of the Department of Agriculture.
As in the case of Federal credits, it is highly desirable that any
form of production control should carry as a contractual quid pro
quo provision that conservative land use will be practiced, following
recommendation of competent agencies in the Department of Agri-
culture.
This study has developed no conclusions as to immediate need for
additional legislation.
THE PROBLEM OF MANAGING WILDLIFE ON FEDERAL LANDS
The key to development of wildlife is the maintenance of an essen-
tially natural environment; and the key to management is to handle
wildlife as a crop, coordinated with all other resources of the land.
To a high degree management as a function of landownership is the
natural method of approach.
Reliance has been placed on State laws, controlling seasons, bag
limits, etc., and on cooperation between States and Federal Govern-
ment on lands managed by the latter. The ultimate limits of this
method are set by the degree to which the past legalistic means of
State control are altered to conform to the concept of wildlife as a
crop and as a product of environment. Such changes are under way
in a few States.
When on a biologically sound basis cooperation is both effective and
desirable and the full possibilities should be more fully explored.
But where the pattern of management in a State proves inadequate
to meet the opportunity for constructive wildlife management on
Federal properties, means of action, applied directly by the Federal
Government, should be developed.
PROBLEMS REQUIRING STATE LEGISLATIVE ACTION
Earlier sections of the report have also isolated a group of prob-
lems requiring State legislative action for their solution.
The problems are :
WHETHER TO DISPOSE OF OR RETAIN RANGE LANDS NOW IN OR TO BE IN STATE
OWNERSHIP
Present practice varies in different States, but generally aims to
dispose of State lands through sale to private owners — a plan of
action implicit if not always legally established in Federal laws grant-
ing the lands to the several States. The general effect of the Federal-
grant laws is often to encourage handling the lands for maximum
revenue; that is, on a real-estate basis. The States in following this
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 545
course have, in general, fulfilled Federal requirements rather than
selected a course of their own. Since many, if not most, such lands
remaining in State ownership are low grade, the disposal policy
tends to add to the problem of privately owned lands. Moreover,
sale prices are often set by State laws, and in some cases by Federal-
grant laws, at a point above their true earning capacity.
Recommended legislation. — Federal legislation which sets or im-
plies a policy of general disposal to private ownership should be
repealed in order to afford the States a clean-cut opportunity to retain
their lands and place them under professional management.
Beyond that point it is desirable that each range State should decide
by State law or constitutional amendment that range lands, including
those obtained through Federal grants, through foreclosure of farm
loans, and through tax reversion, are to be retained and managed,
unless clearly suitable for private ownership. In the event that a
State elects to dispose of range lands suitable only for public owner-
ship, it is desirable that the law set as a guiding policy the transfer
through sale or otherwise of the lands to other public ownership
rather than to pass them to private ownership.
Coupled with this there should be provision that a professional
classification of lands be made so that the true place for both private
and public ownership may be eventually determined. Legal provi-
sion setting excessive sale prices should be modified.
PROBLEM OF JURISDICTION OF STATE RANGE LANDS
At present in most States the State range lands are handled by
agencies concerned primarily with obtaining an immediate income
or with disposal through sale. That long-term constructive technical
management is seldom the ruling point of view is evident from the fact
that few States utilize the professional competence available in State
institutions devoted to agriculture.
Recommended legislation. — It is highly desirable that in States
which elect to retain, block up, and manage their range lands a State
agency with professional qualifications should be set up and charged
with administration of the lands. Basic State law should naturally
declare that permanent and constructive management is to be the
guiding purpose.
PROBLEM OF TAX DELINQUENCY AND TAX-REVERTED LANDS
In general, existing tax-delinquency laws are based on the premise
that only as a last resort will local government assert title for non-
payment of taxes. The assumption is implicit that any lands having
once passed to private ownership have thereby proved their fitness for
that status; that if local government is compelled to assert title as
a means of collecting taxes it is merely a temporary phase of owner-
ship pending prompt sale to a private owner.
The very process of persistent tax delinquency and tax reversion
very often indicates with finality that the lands are not adapted to
private ownership. The problems, then, are to reorient State law to
this point of view, to provide for real land classification, and to create
64946—36 36
546 THE WESTERN RANGE
legal machinery so that prompt assertion of title by local government
may be made.
Under existing law in most States title of tax-reverted lands rests
in the county, which may not want to retain or manage the lands.
A further problem, then, is to make legal provision so that the State
may take over from the counties the range lands acquired through
tax reversion. Necessarily, as a part of this step, provision should be
made so that the State may satisfy the equity of the counties in the
lands.
Recommended legislation. — It is highly desirable that State legis-
lation should include —
1. Provision for careful land classification to determine true place
for permanent private ownership.
2. Recognition that range lands within areas classified as doubtful
for private ownership and tax delinquent for more than about 3 years
are destined for public ownership.
3. Machinery for reasonably prompt assertion of title to such lands
by counties.
4. Provision that lands so acquired may be passed by counties to
State ownership through payment by State to county of a negotiated
sum, based on financial equity in lands.
PROBLEMS OF FACILITATING STATE MANAGEMENT
Even after a basic State policy to retain and manage range lands
is settled on, and after provision is made for State acquisition of tax-
reverted lands, several problems remain. Lands already owned or
acquired from the counties are likely to be scattered or blocked up
into units that cannot be readily administered. And State lands are
likely to lie within national forests or grazing districts where the
primary management job rests on the Federal Government. As a
first step, decision must be made after consultation with Federal
agencies as to spheres of influence of State and Federal Governments.
Recommended legislation. — Then the professional agency set up to
manage State range lands should be authorized to exchange or sell
lands with or to the Federal Government, to determine boundaries
of State range units after consultation with Federal agencies, and,
where lands are in neither State nor Federal reservations, to sell to or
exchange with private owners.
Conceivably a State might wish to set up a board or commission,
similar to the National Forest Reservation Commission, to pass on
recommendations of the State officer.
PROBLEMS OF STATE ACQUISITION OF RANGE LANDS THROUGH PURCHASE
Clearly if the States take over primary responsibility for blocking
up and managing lands already owned and those acquired through
foreclosure and tax reversion, they will have a sizable job. Whether
in addition they will wish to embark on a program of purchasing
range lands in a way similar to that suggested for the Federal Gov-
ernment is a question that each State will answer for itself.
Bearing on the final decision of individual States will no doubt
ibe such consideration as the size and cost of the range-mimagement
LEGISLATION AXD COSTS 547
job already undertaken; financial ability to branch out into new
fields; whether cooperative relationships with Federal agencies are
on a satisfactory basis; and the rate at which the Federal Govern-
ment is redeeming its responsibility in range-land acquisition.
Despite the undoubted fact that it would seem that most, if not all,
the States already have in sight a task of great magnitude in the
immediate future, it is highly desirable that an affirmative State
acquisition policy and program be inaugurated-
PROBLEM OF FACILITATING PRIVATE RANGE-LAND OWNERSHIP THROUGH REDUCTION OF
LOCAL TAXES
Major factors contributing to unstable private ownership of range
lands and to tax delinquency and tax reversion are probably the high
level of land valuation and taxation and the elaboration of local
governments which forces them.
This whole problem is so complex, involving as it does all forms
of private property, and is so bound into existing financial commit-
ments of local government, that this study has made no attempt
to analyze it. But it remains as a problem and a challenge to the
States, as a large part of their share of the public effort to put the
institution of private ownership on a more secure foundation than it
now has.
PROBLEM OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT
At present, jurisdiction over wildlife rests with the States, since
no final legal determination of jurisdiction has been made. In most
States wildlife is handled under a complex set of specific and de-
tailed laws setting bag limits, seasons, age, and sex limits, manner
of taking, and permanently closed refuges. Fish and game authori-
ties of most States enjoy little or no authority to alter the opera-
tion of the laws, even though unmistakable need is found to do so.
Under such a set-up the virtual extermination of a species is quite
possible even with complete law enforcement. State services, more-
over, have not generally attracted to their ranks, even in important
executive positions, men with professional training in wildlife man-
agement. In most States, in short, wildlife is not regarded or
managed as a crop. Naturally, then, relatively little effort has been
made to find through research fundamental facts on which a bio-
logically sound plan of management might be based.
Recommended legislation. — Highly desirable State legislation
would include provision that all officers have professional training
in wildlife management, and that a commission be empowered to
determine steps for handling game on problem areas, to determine
seasons, bag limits, total kill from individual areas, and allotment
of hunting privileges, where all applicants cannot be accommodated.
THE PROBLEM OF FACILITATING ORGANIZATION OF GRAZING DISTRICTS BY PRIVATE
OWNERS
The most important attempt so far made to facilitate organiza-
tion by private owners of grazing districts is in Montana. Under
the grazing-district law pooling of resources and joint action has
548 THE WESTERN RANGE
been undertaken, and under the existing conditions of cooperative
intent and able leadership, the venture is regarded as highly success-
ful.
Careful study of operations in this large scale experiment is
clearly desirable, so that the true field for its application may be
fully understood and additional areas determined in which similar
action offers a chance to solve problems of bad ownership patterns.
THE JOINT PROBLEM OF STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS TO WORK
COOPERATIVELY
The basic job of government in all these respects should be to
make public policy and action supplement private effort so that
the range resource will contribute permanently and to the highest
possible degree to local, regional, and national wealth and stability.
In this job there are clearly defined fields which almost automati-
cally assign themselves to one of the three major parties at interest.
But there are large sectors, notably the working out of a more effi-
cient and permanent distribution of ownership, in which joint study,
agreement, and action are necessary if the whole job of rehabilitat-
ing the range resource is to move rapidly.
To obtain cooperation among the several agencies in the entire
venture is not primarily a question of law. It is rather one of intent
on the part of responsible States and Federal officials to work the
problem out systematically, and with recognition of the place of
each in the program. Beyond a doubt this can be accomplished if
the task is viewed realistically, rather than through the colored
glasses of preconceived political or philosophical dogma and theory,
COSTS
The task of putting 728 million acres of range land in productive
condition, establishing a competent administration on publicly owned
lands, and assisting private enterprise to improve and stabilize range
industry will involve expenditures by the livestock producer, the
States, and the Federal Government. A recapitulation of these esti-
mated expenditures, needed to realize the major objectives of the
foregoing proposed programs, will be of advantage here.
If it is recognized that the range resource of the western United
States has been badly punished and that the permanency and wel-
fare of the livestock industry is threatened, the next consideration is
to be prepared as a national economic necessity to pay the price of
adjustment and restoration. The proposed expenditures will ulti-
mately be returned, in part, from the income of the harvested forage,
and in part from the indirect benefits which accrue to the national
income through established communities and enterprises growing
out of a prosperous livestock industry and well-cared for watersheds.
The proposed expenditures fall into four categories — capital in-
vestments in improvements, current administrative requirements,
public acquisition of land, and research and extension. The esti-
mates are based on the extensive experience of the Forest Service in
handling the national forests, and on special surveys conducted on
the public domain and on private lands.
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 549
The suggested urgency and the rate at which expenditures should
be made are indicated. Current expenditures for administration on
publicly owned lands cannot be deferred if some degree of real
range management is desired. Expenditures for capital investments,
although urgently needed, may be logically programed over a period
of years ; and the same is true for acquisition of lands and research.
The estimates have in each case been made with one consideration
predominant — what minimum expenditure will insure the progres-
sive rebuilding of the resource and give the greatest returns in
income, benefits, and services. If some of the capital investments
are deferred too long, the ultimate cost of the job may increase many-
fold and some areas may be permanently and irretrievably lost for
forage production, or become a menace to the conservation of stable
and favorably conditioned watersheds.
A program for erosion control on range lands has been omitted.
The extent and character of the entire job are not fully known,
neither have the final methods for control on a large scale been worked
out with sufficient accuracy to give the basis for estimates of costs.
Other factors will influence the extent of the erosion-control work
that should be undertaken. Good range management, reveg;etation,
and rodent control as proposed in the program will all contribute to
the reestablishment and building up of the forage cover. Insofar as
this is accomplished, the necessity for other erosion-control measures
will be in part modified or entirely eliminated.
THE JOB ON FEDERAL LANDS
NATIONAL FORESTS
A total of 1,430,000 cattle and horses and 6,161,000 sheep and goats
are grazed on the 82.5 million acres of existing national forests.
While the principle of multiple-use management has been applied
to the national forests, so that all resources have been given atten-
tion, on units where grazing is important or predominant grazing
administration has received its proportionate share of allotted funds.
But through multiple-use management the cost of grazing admin-
istration has been less than if the national forests were handled
solely for the forage resource.
For the administration of grazing of domestic livestock on the
national forests during the fiscal years 1932 to 1935 an average
expenditure of $0.0089 per acre was incurred. In 1930 an exhaustive
study of national-forest work was made, in which it was shown that
38.4 percent of the total work load on the western national forests
should be allocated to grazing administration and that, with appro-
priations available at that time, no such allocation was feasible. The
Forest Service had long recognized that additional expenditures
were required to realize a more adequate administration of this re-
source. To meet this obligation would add $0.006 per acre to present
expenditure. The total cost for adequate range administration is
thus $0.0149 per acre for domestic livestock.
The activities of the Forest Service in wildlife management on
national forests now average in cost $0.0018 per acre. To carry for-
ward an adequate wildliie program on existing national forests
550
THE WESTERN KANGE
located in the western range States, additional funds for administra-
tion will be needed. Wildlife management is required on approxi-
mately 120 million acres, and the present and prospective resource
value of wildlife on this area is inordinately large. On the basis of
present information an additional annual expenditure of $500,000
is warranted for the next 5-year period, which would make a per-acre
cost of about $0.0042. The total cost of administration of the range
for domestic livestock and for wildlife will, therefore, reach the
figure of $0.0209 per acre.
In addition to these increases in administration, capital invest-
ments must be made on the existing national forests if vital interests
of dependent communities and the livestock industry are to be pro-
tected and for the development of orderly and well-coordinated
range use plans.
The major items of capital investment are as given in table 86,
together with a recapitulation of additional annual expenditures
needed to secure best range use and development of forage on exist-
ing forests for a 5-year period. This figure excludes past expendi-
tures for investments and present current expenditures for admin-
istration ($0.0149 per acre for domestic livestock and $0.0018 for
wildlife) .
TABLE 86. — National- forest ranges: Cost items involved in capital-investment
program and estimated additional administrative costs for first 5-year
period
Cost items
Area to
be cov-
ered
Cost per
acre
Period to
complete
Total cost
Annual
cost for
first 5-year
period
Rans"e surveys and development
Million
acres
56.80
$0.0090
Years
5
$512, 000
$102, 000
Range fences l
82.50
.0530
10
4,376,000
438,000
Water development 2
82.50
.0407
10
3, 362, 000
336, 000
Artificial revegetation...
.78
3. 5000
20
2,730,000
136,000
Rodent control
8.00
.0800
5
640, 000
128,000
Total capital investment
11, 620, 000
» 1, 140, 000
Administration (general)
82 50
0060
500, 000
Wildlife management
120 00
.0042
500, 000
Maintenance and replacement of improvements
82 50
0090
< 742, 000
Total annual cost
2, 882, 000
i 13,300 miles of fence.
» 8,205 projects.
1 Annual cost of capital investments the second 5-year period $910,000.
< Annual cost of maintenance and replacement second 5-year period $986,000.
GEAZING DISTRICTS
The net usable public domain and minor Federal reservation^
available for the creation of grazing districts is estimated at 149.4
million acres. If the public domain is to be adequately administered
and developed, and its uses correlated, all the resources requiring
management must be given attention. Hence in calculating costs
for administration, the development of all the resources has been
considered, even though not clearly contemplated under the present
grazing act.
LEGISLATION AND COSTS
551
A form of organization to administer the public domain with these
objectives in view would consist of an independent grazing service
with a central unit at Washington and adequate field organization.
In the light of the extended experience of the Forest Service, it is
estimated that this would cost about $2,260,000 per year or an
average of $0.0151 per acre.
To carry forward the proposed wildlife-management program on
the public domain, additional costs for such administration must be
provided over and above the estimate for general administration.
Wildlife management will require at least $150,000 annually or ap-
proximately $0.001 per acre to provide for survey, management, and
law enforcement.
In addition to these administrative costs, the public domain, if it
is to be restored and maintained to its productive capacity, requires
outlays in capital investments, as given in table 87.
TABLE 87. — Public-domain ranges: Cosit items involved in capital-investment
program and estimated additional administrative costs for first 5-year
period
Cost items
Area to
be cov-
ered
Cost per
acre
Period to
complete
Total cost
Annual
cost for
first 5-year
period
Range surveys and development
Million
acres
149.4
$0. 0045
Years
5
$666, 000
$133, 000
Range fences * - - -
149.4
.0325
10
4,861,000
486,000
Water development 2
149.4
.0202
10
3, 022, 000
302,000
Artificial re vegetation ... .
18.0
2.5500
20
45, 900, 000
2,295,000
Rodent control
40.0
.0800
10
3, 200, 000
320!(X)0
Tntnl Capital invftstrnftnt
57, 649, 000
'3,536,000
Administration (general) ._
149.4
.0151
2,260,000
Wildlife management
149.4
.0010
150,000
Maintenance and replacement of improvements .
149.4
(4)
Total annual cost
5, 946, 000
1 16,900 miles of fence.
2 6,050 projects.
3 Annual cost of capital investments the second 5-year period, $3,403,000.
4 None contemplated first 5 years. Annual cost for second 5-year period of maintenance and replacement
of improvements built the first 5-year period estimated at $550,000.
INDIAN LANDS
The area of Indian lands in the Western Range States where graz-
ing is carried on is estimated at 48.4 million acres. The present cost
of range administration, exclusive of clerical, fiscal, and overhead
services, is estimated at $0.005 per acre. In 1936 an increase of
$0.006 per acre was estimated as needed in order to obtain more ade-
quate .administration of the forage resources, making a proposed
total cost of $0.011 per acre. Wildlife management as proposed under
the program would add about $0.001 per acre. This would give a,
cost of $0.012 per acre for range administration of domestic livestock
and wildlife.
The estimated capital investment required to preserve, improve,
and restore forage and watershed values are given in table 88.
552
THE WESTERN RANGE
TABLE 88. — Indian lands: Cost items involved in capital-investment program and
estimated additional administrative costs for first 5-year period
Cost items
Area to
be cov-
ered
Cost per
acre
Period to
complete
Total cost
Annual
cost for
first 5-year
period
Range surveys and development
Million
acres
28 5
$0 0074
Years
5
$210, 000
$42, 000
Range fences" l .1
48.4
.0310
10
1, 500, 000
150, 000
Water development • . .
48 4
.0310
10
1, 500, 000
150, 000
Artificial revegetation
1.6
2.8500
20
4, 645, 000
232, 000
Rodent control
12 0
.0800
5
960, 000
192, 000
Total capital investment
8, 815, 000
» 766, 000
Administration (general)
48 4
.0060
290,000
Wildlife management
48 4
0010
48,000
Maintenance and replacement of improvements.
48.4
.0015
* 75, 000
Total annual cost
1, 179, 000
1 5,000 miles of fence.
1 3,000 projects.
1 Annual cost of capital investments the second 5-year period $532,000.
* Annual cost of maintenance and replacement second 5-year period $232,000.
THE JOB ON STATE AND COUNTY LANDS
State- and county-owned range lands now total 65 million acres
in the western range States. If these lands are to be placed under
management, provision must be made for a trained professional per-
sonnel and investments in primary improvements such as fences,
water development, roads, trails, and revegetation. The States and
counties will follow forms of organization and administration espe-
cially suited to fit in with existing agencies handling conservation
and lands in their governmental organizations.
Obviously, it would be difficult to estimate what administrative
costs will be with any degree of accuracy. A figure of $0.0116 per
acre is estimated as sufficient to inaugurate a reasonably effective
organization.
As with the public domain or with national forests, expenditures
for basic capital investments must be incurred if State and county
range lands are to be built up as permanent sources of forage for live-
stock production and wildlife and as favorably conditioned water-
sheds.
Important as the task may be, the States and counties are unlikely
for many reasons to embark immediately on any full program. But
public recognition that range resources must be preserved may be
sufficient to give impetus for States and counties in starting to man-
age their range lands, within the financial capacities of local gov-
ernments.
The total capital investments needed for the 65 million acres now
in State and county ownership are approximately as follows :
Range surveys and management plans $345, 000
Range fences 3, 125, 000
Water development 868, 000
Artificial revegetation 7, 595, 000
Rodent control— 1,200,000
Total__ 13, 133, 000
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 553
The annual cost of maintenance and replacement during the second
5-year period will probably amount to $150,000.
If the work is undertaken on a 10-year program, $1,313,000 a year
will be required to provide essential basic improvements to place an
area of approximately 65 million acres under proper range manage-
ment. Annual administration will cost $754,000 annually in
addition.
THE JOB ON PRIVATE LANDS
Other sections of this report discuss the problems of the private
ownership of range lands, the burden of carrying charges, and the
probabilities of making capital investments for improvement and
restoration.
The necessity for extending public ownership to the submarginal
range and farm lands of those now held precariously in private
ownership has also been discussed. If all private range lands, 376
million acres, are to be put to best use, restored for forage produc-
tion and maintained under favorable watershed conditions, the pub-
lic will undoubtedly have to assume jointly with the private owner
the responsibility for development and administration. Three major
items of expenditures will be involved in such a program : Purchase
of lands, capital investments, and administration.
The magnitude of the problem and the large funds required to
carry out a complete and adequate program warrant a deliberate
and cautious approach. Nevertheless, unless affirmative action is
taken in reasonable time the problem will become more involved
and complex and the adverse economic consequences of delay far-
reaching. The first and logical step is to conduct a survey of the
resources on the land areas involved so as to determine the best
plans for management and development and the extent to which
public purchase should be undertaken. This will require a survey
of at least 215 million acres of privately held land at a cost of about
$0.004 per acre.
An area of approximately 125 million acres of submarginal char-
acter and high public values has been recommended in an earlier
section for ultimate public ownership. Some of these lands will,
in all probability, come into public ownership through tax delin-
quency and some as gifts. Taking these factors into account, an
estimate of $1 per acre is set for the cost of acquisition. A 20-year
purchase program may be required.
Irrespective of whether private lands remain in private owner-
ship or are in part acquired by the Federal Government and the
States, the costs of the investments per acre will be more or less
the same.
A rough approximation may be given for expenditures, appli-
cable to the entire area of 376 million acres, during the first 10 years :
Preliminary survey (215 million acres) $860,000
Fences (19,800 miles) 6,246,000
Water development (10,500 projects) 3,018,000
Artificial revegetation (15 million acres) 48,032,000
Rodent control (75 million acres) 6,000,000
Total _ 64, 156, 000
554 THE WESTERN RANGE
Such a program will require an annual expenditure of $6,416,000.
Private owners will carry the bulk of this cost in the form of their
own time or that of hired help.
Estimated annual expenditures in connection with the gradual
acquisition by the public of 125 million acres over a 20-year period
are:
Intensive surveys and management plans $150, 000
Purchase of lands 6, 300, 000
Total 6,450,000
Administration charges on the publicly acquired lands and to be
borne by the public, at $0.015 per acre, would be $94,500 the first
year and $945,000 the tenth year. Beginning with the sixth year,
the annual cost of maintenance would likely be $200,000.
Assuming that the expense of this entire program would be shared
by the public and the private owner about in proportion to the divi-
sion of ultimate ownership, the annual costs prorated over the first
10-year period would be —
Private owners:
Capital investments $4, 277, 000
Maintenance of these improvements 65, 000
Total 4, 342, 000
Public:
Capital investments 2, 139, 000
Purchase and management plans 6, 450, 000
Maintenance of improvements 35, 000
Administration 470,000
Total 9, 094, 000
Without public assistance it is doubtful, however, if such work as
rodent control and revegetation will be undertaken to the extent
Deeded by private owners on the lands to remain in private hands.
They may be expected, as their incomes increase and reasonable
credit is available, to undertake essential new investments in fences
and water developments. Nevertheless, it is probable the public
which will have to aid the private owners in carrying out the work
so that the ultimate cost to the public may be higher than the annual
amount indicated.
A. program on the scale indicated would go a long way toward
initiating with reasonable aggressiveness the rehabilitation of a vast
territory which has suffered through ill-advised marginal farming
and destructive range use. The territory in which this program must
be started and carried forward presents some of the most vexing
submarginal-land-use problems and all the concomitant economic
ills which grow out of these. The longer it is put off, the more it will
cost.
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
If the information necessary for effectuating the program of read-
justment, administration, and management of range lands is to be
available when needed, a more aggressive program for all classes of
LEGISLATION AND COSTS 555
research must be undertaken. During the next 10-year period a
gradual increase should be made over the current expenditures of
about $750,000 until an annual total of $2,750,000 is reached. The
Federal Government should assume the responsibility for approxi-
mately $2,000,000, the States for $550,000, and other agencies for
$200,000.
In order to promote satisfactory management on the 376 million
acres of ranges now in private ownership and of privately owned
livestock grazing on publicly owned ranges, a range-extension pro-
gram estimated to cost about $1,000,000 annually should be developed
during the next 10 years. This cost should be borne about equally
by the Federal Government and the States.
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APPENDIX
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES
By W. G. WAHLENBERG, Forester, and E. W. GEMMER, Associate Silviculturist,
Southern Forest Experiment Station
Conditions on ranges in the Southern States differ markedly from
those found in the West. The South is not usually thought of as an
important factor in the livestock industry of the country. However,
southern forest-range lands cover an immense territory. Within this
wide region there are, roughly, 300 million acres of land, two-thirds
of which is in forest of one form or another. Most of this 200 million
acres of forest land provides some grazing for livestock. Nearly all
of the livestock owned by farmers is handled in small herds and for
the most part is allowed to range at large. The industry contributes
an important share of the income and subsistence of southern farmers.
The South, as covered in this report, includes the nine States from
Virginia to Louisiana and Arkansas and the pine-forested sections of
eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma, as shown in figure 86. It can
be divided roughly into four physiographic divisions : (1) The exten-
sive Coastal Plain; (2) the Piedmont; (3) the Mississippi River bot-
tomlands; and (4) the remaining area, including the Appalachian-
Ozark highlands, sand hills, silt-loam uplands, prairies, marshes, etc.
The Coastal Plain and Piedmont form the major part of the southern
forest-range land. On these the predominating soils are sands and
sandy loams, overlying more or less impervious clay subsoils.
The climate provides mild winters, hot summers, rainfall usually
abundant throughout the year, and long growing seasons. Such a
climate is conducive to rapid growth of vegetation.
According to the 1934 agricultural census, the area of crop land on
southern farms totaled approximately 64 million acres ; pasture land
amounted to 44 million acres, divided into plowable, 12 million acres ;
woodland, 24 million acres; and other, 8 million acres. The forest
land under fence and devoted to permanent improved pastures is
relatively small — probably not over 20 million acres; the remaining
180 million acres of other forest land is also open forest range.
The early settlers in the South appreciated its possibility as a stock-
raising country and the forest ranges have been used to some degree
for livestock since the early colonial days. While only a small pro-
portion of the total livestock values in the United States are in the
South, the number of packing plants, creameries, and cheese factories
there is gradually increasing, and the region may some day become
self-sufficient in the production of livestock and livestock products.
567
568
THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
Table 89 gives the latest data available (1935) on the number and
value of livestock in the South in comparison with the United States
as a whole.
TABLE 89. — Number and value of Nation's livestock on farm and range in the
South, as of Jan. 1, 1935 *
Type of stock
Proportion of Na-
tion's livestock
Value in relation
to total value for
.Nation
Horses and colts ... . __ . ..
Thousands
754
2,171
7,423
976
6,792
Percent
6.5
45
12
2
18
Thousand
dollars
55,064
238, 646
111, 135
3,506
35, 564
Percent
6
52
9
1.5
15
Mules and mule colts
Cattle
ShftAp and lamhf?
Hogs and pigs . . . .. .__.
1 Bureau of Agricultural Economics estimates.
These data indicate a total of 18,116,000 head of livestock on open
and fenced ranges in the South. This represents 14 percent of the
total number and 11 percent of the value for the United States as a
whole. That the proportionate value of southern livestock is less
than their proportionate number, with the exception of mules, is
indicative of the lower quality of animals produced in this section
of the United States.
FORAGE, FEED, AND RANGE RESOURCES
The principal southern forest range is in the longleaf -slash pine
type extending through the lower South, near the seaboard (see
map). It consists of large openings in the heavily cut virgin timber
stands and typically open grass-covered areas in much of the second-
growth forest and embraces altogether about 55 million acres.
The next most important type coincides with the extensive loblolly -
shortleaf -hardwood forest of the upper Coastal Plain and Piedmont
region, covering approximately 80 million acres of forest land.
This forest is usually denser than the longleaf -slash forest and has
less forage available.
Other southern forest types that contribute to open range grazing
include the bottomland hardwoods (30 million acres) and the upland
hardwood forests (35 million acres). The hardwood bottomlands
in the Mississippi and other river valleys are more heavily forested
than the pine country and support little grass but considerable
browse. Switch cane stands, formerly quite abundant here, afford
excellent winter feed, but have been greatly reduced by overgrazing
and fire. "Paille finne" grass in the bottom lands of the Delta is
used for summer grazing and is attracting attention because of its
high forage value. It occurs most abundantly on lands where the
water level is within 2 or 3 feet of the surface. If cut early and
while it is still succulent, it makes good hay. Unfortunately the
wild variety bears little seed and artificial propagation by vegeta-
tive methods is slow and expensive. The upland hardwood types
of forest are not heavily stocked, but provide part-time grazing.
The native herbage of the South consists largely of such grasses
as the beardgrasses, or "broomsedges" and the three-awns, or "wire-
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES
569
grasses", augmented with a scattering of switch canes and other
broad-bladed grasses and swamp plants. The grazing capacity of
such forage during the grazing season (March-October) varies from
5 to 25 acres per animal unit, with the commonly accepted average
of 10 acres. The palatability of the native grasses is, in general,
rather low, although during the spring excellent grazing is available
for a period of about 90 days. The warm, moist climate brings
about a rank growth and early maturity of these grasses. The pro-
UPLAND HARDWOODS
LONGLEAF- SLASH PINE
vv\\\xl SHORT LEAF- LOBLOLLY- HARDWOOD
BOTTOMLAND HARDWOODS AND CYPRESS
BOUNDARY OF SOUTHERN RANGE LANDS
FIGURE 86.— SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES.
Approximately 200 million acres of southern forest range is grazed by domestic livestock
which contribute an important share of the income and subsistence of southern
farmers.
tein content and hence the nutritive value drops rapidly as maturity
approaches, and cattle will not thrive long on this forage alone. The
livestock owners customarily burn off every winter the "rough", as
this accumulation of dead grasses is locally known, in order that
fresh feed may be more easily available to livestock in the spring.
This widespread burning is practiced as a rule without regard for
the possibility of damage to the forest. Where successive burnings
are made at intervals throughout the winter the animals will move
progressively over the area, and the period of easily available forage
570 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
is thus lengthened. Bottomland plants and broad-leaved grasses
supply important winter feed for cattle and deer. Excessive or
unregulated burning can jeopardize this food supply.
In addition to native grasses a number of species of grass and
legumes which have been introduced and become naturalized in the
South have proved to be of high forage value. The most notable are
Bermuda, carpet, and Johnson grasses. Bermuda grass is found
mainly along roadsides and ditches and in abandoned fields. Carpet
grass, which maintains itself in competition with native grasses only
under heavy grazing, will stand closer cropping and heavier tramp-
ling than any other local grass. It is so palatable that it is nearly
always very closely grazed and left unburned by common woods
fires. Johnson grass is a notorious invader of cotton fields. The car-
rying capacity of all three of these grasses is much greater than that
of the native species, but their occurrence on the forest range is still
very limited and localized.
Lnp roved pastures cover only a small area in the South, but are of
great potential importance. The most promising forage plants for
summer pasturage are the common lespedeza and Bermuda, carpet,
and Dallis grasses. These plants are extremely hardy, withstand
heat and drought, and renew themselves vegetatively with a high
degree of success. If intensively grazed carpet-grass pastures are
allowed to rest, the nutritive value is retained into late summer and
fall; if desired for winter pasture the livestock must be removed in
July and August.
In the Piedmont, winter pastures can be established with the use of
sweetclover, Carolina, crimson, and white clovers, black medic, and
vetches. These pasture plants are, however, subject to climatic in-
juries and require frequent artificial reseeding, planting, or other
cultural encouragement.
The chief limitation of such improved pastures is that they require
better than average soils and occasional applications of fertilizer.
Improved pastures have a much higher nutritive value than the
native range, supporting one head of cattle to each acre or two during
the grazing season (6 to 9 months). Their grazing capacity is more
than five times as great as on native range during a similar period,
and the rate of gain in live weight often twice as rapid.
In the upland hardwood region such pastures are confined to the
rich cove and valley lands and fertile hill land which has recently
been cleared of forests. Well-drained moist areas along streams are
the best locations in the Piedmont, while the Coastal Plain region
produces its best pastures on low, well-drained soil. In the latter
region excellent growth of inkberry or "gallberry" is considered as a
good indicator of desirable land for permanent pastures.
After removal of the primary agricultural crop, fenced fields, espe-
cially if cultivated, may be used temporarily as pastures. These
pastures usually contain a mixture of legumes, weeds, and remains of
crop plants such as corn, sugar or ribbon cane, and sorghum, valuable
alike to wildlife and domestic animals.
Feeds for winter use can be put up at a very reasonable cost. The
production of hay is more difficult in this prevailing moist climate
than in the drier regions to the north and west, although the yields
per acre compare favorably with those regions. Cowpeas, lespedeza,
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES 571
and grasses constitute the principal hays. With the invention of the
trench silo, the use of sugarcane and sorghum as silage has become
more general. Dairy cattle are also fed cottonseed meal, corn, and
home-grown or imported grain feeds.
CHARACTER OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS
Nature has developed in the South such distinct varieties of live-
stock animals as piney-woods cattle, razorback hogs, and the southern
mule. As a product of natural selection they survive and thrive
better in their southern environment than do the animals of artificial
selection and breeding introduced from outside the region.
The first southern cattle were largely of Spanish and English
origin, known as black cattle. These animals were small and
poorly shaped, but extremely hardy and highly resistant to disease
and parasites. Many attempts to raise and breed pure unacclimated
stock from other regions have failed because of the cattle fever
tick, ignorance of local conditions, or overcapitalization. Certain
breeds, chiefly Aberdeen Angus, Hereford, and Shorthorn, have
been introduced into the South and gradually absorbed into the
basic stock. The first and second crosses of native cattle with im-
proved breeds of stock have been found better suited to southern
needs than either of the parent stocks.
The present typical pine-woods cattle are light and the weight too
far forward to produce the most valuable meat cuts of high-quality
beef. Such deficiencies date from early days and have arisen largely
from a tendency to "top" herds by disposing of the best animals
and from excessive inbreeding. At present only a small percent
of the blooded cattle of the country are found in the South, but the
advisability of gradually breeding up local stocks, using local
piney-woods cows as the foundation of the herd, is well established.
The production of calves for veal to be consumed locally also offers
possibilities. The dairy industry is a present-day development in
the South. It utilizes largely mixed native and Jersey cattle.
Sheep, raised primarily for wool, are also of Spanish origin. The
production of mutton has been almost unknown and only recently
has the possibility of raising lambs for market been considered.
That the southern environment is far from ideal for sheep is re-
flected in the high susceptibility of these animals to organic and
parasitic disease, particularly where crowding occurs, and in light-
ness of fleece. In the South the fleece averages less than 5 pounds
in weight, while the average for western sheep is more than 8 pounds.
It is estimated that, between 1933 and 1935, screwworms caused a
loss of as much as 20 percent of the sheep in portions of the South-
east.
Unlike sheep, hogs have been especially successful in acclimating
themselves in the Southern States. Farm hogs benefit from inocu-
lation against cholera and respond well under close management.
Essentially a forest animal, the hog has been at home in the pine
and oak forests from the very beginning, feeding upon acorns, seeds,
grubs, and the succulent roots of pine trees. "The excavating abili-
ties of the pine rooter, a long-nosed beast called 'razorback', are an
athletic marvel excelled only by his speed (13*2}" The hogs are
572 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
prolific and require practically no attention by the owner except
salting or occasional feeding to prevent their wandering too far
afield.
In the South, the horse has been developed principally for the
saddle or as a light draft animal, while mules have taken the brunt
of the heavy farm work. The best mules are produced in the
northern part of the region; many are brought in. It is doubtful
whether any other animal has been developed which can stand up
under the warm climate, disease, and hard work as well as the
southern mule.
WILDLIFE ON SOUTHERN RANGES
A discussion of grazing on forest ranges would not be complete
if confined entirely to domestic stock; wildlife is also a user of the
open range. The principle game birds are quail, doves, and turkey ;
game animals, deer and fox; and the fur bearers include opossum,
raccoon, skunk, otter, fox, wildcat, squirrel, and rabbit.49 To the
traditional and widely recognized sentimental and recreational values
of wildlife, a variety of commercial values are now being added at
many points. The market values of fur and hide are well known,
of course. Certain typical cut-over pine lands in the South have
been leased for quail-shooting privileges for as much as 15 cents
per acre per year. At a value to the user of 30 cents a pound, the
dressed carcass of a deer is worth more than that of a native cow
raised on the same area. Though not susceptible of precise measure-
ment, the economic value of birds in retarding epidemics of insects
is very real.
The greater portion of the forest land in the South is still open
to the public for hunting, fishing, and trapping, but private gun clubs
and shooting grounds are becoming increasingly popular, along with
a demand for more game preserves. Before the white man came
extensive areas of the southern "pine barrens" were too uniform,
open, and limited in food and hiding places to produce any great
amount of wildlife. After the territory was settled increased natu-
ral propagation of wildlife resulted indirectly from the numerous
widely scattered cleared fields and roadsides where the development
of dense patches of hardwoods, bushes, and grass add to the supply
of both food and shelter. Many of these trees, shrubs, and plants
have previously been regarded as mere weed species. Birds consume
many small fruits and seeds found in old fields and in forest open-
ings, especially during periods when insects are not available. As
the same openings provide abundant browse and forage for deer, they
have multiplied, but in general settlement of the country decreased
the supply of the larger animals, while it often increased the num-
bers of birds and small game.
The possibility of conservation through plan-wise use of wildlife
is receiving increased recognition in the South. Investigations, par-
48 No census of game has been made for the South as a whole. The following data are
indicative, however, of the numbers and values of wildlife in southern forests. The kill
in Alabama for the season of 1929-30, as reported by the Department of Game and Fish,
was: 2,400,000 quail, valued at $1,200,000; 800 deer, at $20,000; 1,000,000 doves, at
$250,000 ; 615,000 fur bearers, at $2,000,000 ; and 3,000 turkey, at $30,000. The kill in
Texas during the season of 1932-33 was 6,104 deer, 2,182 turkey, and 1,407,884 fur bear-
ers, as given in the Annual Report of the Game, Fish, and Oyster Commission for the fiscal
year 1932-33.
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES 573
ticularly on quail in Georgia, have shown that much can be done
to augment game supplies simply through inexpensive measures to
bring about favorable changes in natural environment. Much con-
sideration must be given to the most practical means of integrating
conflicting interests where the same land is being used for the pro-
duction of domestic livestock, wildlife, and trees of commercial value.
Undoubtedly domestic animals will have to be excluded from areas
under intensive management for game, nor can much wildlife be
expected to frequent areas intensively used by domestic livestock.
Although not affecting game directly, domestic animals are recog-
nized as having an unfavorable influence on many factors which
control game animals, such as food supply, disease, parasites, and
coverts. The degree of encroachment, however, is proportionate to
the numbers of stock, so that in nonintensive range use as in the
publicly owned forests, the conflict in requirements of wild and do-
mestic animals is minimized. A practical balance may be attained
on superimposed or overlapping ranges, although a more stable and
satisfactory cohabitation can be developed where it is possible to
segregate the grazing and wildlife projects on more or less separate
portions of the managed areas.
Where they are available, the seeds of legumes form a large part
of the natural food for quail. Valuable native legumes are increased
by a moderate amount of controlled burning which, when properly
handled, has been found beneficial to both quail and cattle ranges
and is sometimes compatible with timber production. The new
spring grass for cattle and subsequently the seeds for the birds are
both more readily available on winter-burned areas, whereas summer
grazing on native grass is not only unsatisfactory for domestic ani-
mals but destructive to quail feed, consisting largely of leguminous
seeds.
Where such an increase in game as quail, turkey, and deer is de-
sired, land management should be modified to meet the requirements
of game. The following measures are recognized as of outstanding
importance in increasing the game populations in the South : ( 1 ) Con-
trol (or exclusion) of grazing by domestic animals; (2) provision of
an adequate food supply? mainly by making openings in the forest,
or, under certain conditions, by the controlled use of fire; (3) if
necessary, the restocking of favorable habitats by planting imported
game species from similar and not too distant places; (4) protection
through proper and effective control of hunting and trapping; and
(5) the improvement of the environment for wildlife by cultural
measures, such as the provision of nesting and hiding places (refuge
cover) and the control of predators.
UNDESIRABLE CONDITIONS AND RANGE PRACTICES
At least 95 percent of the forest land in the South is privately
owned, and much of it is in the hands of large owners who have
apparently not shown much or any interest in livestock production.
In accordance with age-old custom, southern landowners usually
tolerate grazing on their forest lands by the livestock of numerous
small farmers. The typical forest range is open, no permits are re-
quired, no fees are charged, and often no attempt is made to control
574 THE WESTEKN KANGE APPENDIX
fires set by stock owners to benefit the forage. The ability to survive
despite lack of care or cost has allowed the stigma of cheapness to
become attached to the southern livestock industry. "This type of
farmer expects his stock to cost him nothing and is not disappointed
if they yield him little" (167). Laws designed to force stock owners
to keep animals under fence have been adopted in certain localities,
but have not been generally enforced where agricultural crops are of
minor value, as is the case in many areas where forest use predomi-
nates. It has been regarded as more economical in such cases to fence
in the crop land instead of the ranges, thus foregoing the advantages
to be had from better control of livestock on the range.
In spite of progressive work by the State agricultural experiment
stations and extension services, no widespread interest has been shown
in the adoption of improved methods of animal husbandry. Attempts
at improvement of the animals through selection and breeding have
been sporadic and inconsistently followed. Lack of organization and
progressive leadership within the industry to obtain such benefits
is a handicap. Enclosed and improved pastures are few in the South.
All too often hopeful livestock projects have failed because they were
primarily promotion schemes subordinated to some attempted land
boom or desperate effort to sell depleted forest lands.
Limited areas of improved pasturage have been created by sodding
road shoulders with Bermuda grass, but livestock interests are thus
benefited only at the expense of traffic accidents along highways.
Ultimately, as the country develops, something must be done to
remove rather than aggravate this public hazard.
ECONOMIC TRENDS AFFECTING GRAZING
From the time of the early settlements until the war between the
States, and excepting for the periodic business depressions suffered
over the entire country, the South enjoyed an almost continuous
period of rural expansion and a reasonable degree of prosperity.
Primary products have ranged from tobacco, indigo, and cattle, to
cotton and timber. The resources, land and wealth, were in the
early days largely controlled by a few, while the work was done
either by slaves or by the lowrest class of white laborers. Exceptions
were those people who settled the less productive areas, such as high
pine lands, easily eroded hillsides, or remote recesses of the high
mountains.
In the production of hides and meat, the southern cattle industry
was rather important in the latter half of the eighteenth century and
early part of the nineteenth, but declined before the advance of the
Plantation system, which, based upon the one-crop (cotton) idea,
eld little place for livestock. More recently, the plantation system
has partially broken down through the effects of the bollweevil, soil
depletion, and world competition for cotton, and is shrinking back
to the inner Coastal Plain and Delta on which it reached its highest
development and where it may be maintained. This belt, producing
cotton, tobacco, and corn, is deficient in meat and milk products,
and this situation offers an opportunity for livestock expansion.
The South has vast areas where an expansion in livestock is pos-
sible and desirable. The Piedmont- Appalachian country is capable
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES 575
of producing ample stocks of dairy products for southern markets,
while the Coastal Plain offers opportunities for the production of
beef and other meats. The opportunity and need for an expansion
in livestock and milk production is being given recognition by the
Agricultural Adjustment Administration. The following statements
were made recently by two members of the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration :
In the South, the chief recommendations (of the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration) are for a decrease in cotton acreage and * * * for increases
in total crop land, in pasture land, and in the production of all of the southern
feed crops, except corn. These recommended changes are designed to lessen
soil depletion and control soil erosion, and to furnish a more adequate feed base
for livestock production in the South. As a result, considerable increases are
recommended for all classes of livestock * * * (and milk production) * * *
chiefly designed for farm consumption. That is, they would be used to improve
the standard of living of farmers and farm workers in the South rather than
for the commercial market.60
Studies of human nutrition indicate that from a dietary standpoint, increases
in consumption of dairy products and lean meat, and decreases in consumption
of fat meats, are desirable. The shift toward more hay and pasture consump-
tion by livestock, and less feed-grain consumption, would be in the right
direction * * *.B1
Freedom from land taxes and rentals on the range used but not
owned and freedom from nearly all investment expenses have afforded
a cash income and considerable profit to many southern livestock
owners. The annual sale of livestock in the South often brings in
the only cash income received during the year, and many bank ac-
counts have been derived whollv from livestock. A great handicap
has been and is the lack of the improved pastures that are essential
to the most economical production of livestock. Furthermore, in
some sections low soil fertility has made pasture development diffi-
cult. Pasturage is the cheapest possible form of feed. This is indi-
cated by studies made in 1921 by the Pennsylvania Agricultural
Experiment Station (183) , showing the labor cost per ton of digesti-
ble feed to be $21.21 for silage, $15.94 for grain, and $0.66 for pastures.
The discovery of an all-purpose grass for the South, such as timothy
in the Northeast, that will thrive and produce both hay and perma-
nent pasture, would be a real boon. Nevertheless, unlike much of
the livestock in the West, southern livestock can be fattened locally,
avoiding shipment to other regions to prepare the animals for market.
Although not general practice, it has been demonstrated at some of
the southern State agricultural experiment stations that the use of
suitable animals and feeds produces meat that compares favorably
with western products at the local markets.
A few steps have been taken and definite progress has been made
in improving conditions for southern cattle. Most outstanding has
been the elimination of the cattle-fever tick from most of the region.
The cattle-fever tick area in the United States has been cut down
within the past 30 years to less than 9 percent of the area infested
when the Department of Agriculture started to drive it out of the
80 Wells, O. V. The Regional Adjustment Projecct : A Summary and Some Suggestions
for Further Work. Address before the Association of Land Grant Colleges, at Washing-
ton, D. C., Nov. 20, 1935. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Adjustment
Administration ( mimeographed ) .
B1Tolley, H. R. Regional Adjustment and Democratic Planning. Address before the
Association of Land Grant Colleges, at Washington, D. C., Nov. 20, 1935. U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics (mimeographed).
576 THE WESTEBN RANGE — APPENDIX
count r}7. On July 1, 1906, when eradication work began, nearly 730,-
000 square miles in 15 States was under Federal quarantine because
of the tick. On December 1, 1935, only a little more than 62,000
square miles remained under quarantine — in Florida, Louisiana, and
Texas. This work has removed a discouraging obstacle to the wider
use of improved strains in breeding stock, since pure-blooded animals
have been particularly susceptible to this disease. Another worth-
while accomplishment has been the development of the dairy indus-
try, particularly in the upper Coastal Plain region. On relatively
limited local areas it has brought about the fencing and improvement
of pasture lands for controlled and intensive use. An economical
trench silo has been developed and superior forage and feed plants
introduced in the region through the agricultural experiment stations.
On the Coastal Plain in Florida a cooperative colonization scheme,
after experiencing the failure of several agricultural crops on rather
poor soils, appears now to have established a stable cattle-growing
project.
PROGRESSIVE STEPS NEEDED
As a first requisite in the solution of the range problem, early action
should be taken to extend the use of known improvements and to
coordinate knowledge already acquired of improved management for
livestock, wildlife, and forest products.
Further progress is needed in harmonizing conflicting interests in
land use and thus increasing the control of landowners over the use
of extensive areas of cut-over timber or range-land managed for such
specific purposes as are economically justified. The right of owners
to exclude or control range fires on such lands must not only be legally
recognized, but also be generally respected, whether the land is to be
devoted to the production of timber, livestock, or game animals.
Often the various more or less conflicting uses can be advantageously
combined. Land-use plans may be expected to provide for varied
integrated use of some areas and single segregated use of other
areas. Thus commercial grazing may be recognized on certain na-
tional forests and only subsistence grazing by local residents may be
permitted on, other national forests. Domestic livestock may be
largely excluded from certain forests, public or private, where game
refuges are desired or where grazing interferes with the reproduction
of valuable hardwood forest trees. In the latter case it is essential
to regulate the grazing, particularly during the stage when the forest
area is being reproduced. Whatever the dominant purpose of man-
agement may be, adequate control of land use and occupancy is essen-
tial to the most successful management. This is particularly true of
large areas in the South where such control has not been attained.
Extension of fencing is necessary to effect control of land, and
with this extension the known methods of improving pastures, game
preserves, and ranges will become more practical as owners will then
be able to retain for themselves the benefit of investments in improve-
ments. Similarly the improvement of livestock can then be carried
forward more rapidly and consistently. From what is already
known, the progress made so far by the livestock industry can be
extended materially as soon as the landowner's right to full control
is more widely respected. Such wider application of improved
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES 577
practices will naturally be accompanied by further demands for
information that can be obtained only from investigation and
research.
A PROPOSED PROGRAM FOR RANGE RESEARCH
Research on southern forest-range problems calls for coordination
in the fields of forestry, range management, animal husbandry,
agronomy, and economics. The open-forest range should not be con-
sidered by itself, but in conjunction with the development of native
and improved pastures.
In forestry the most urgent studies will deal with the following
features :
(1) Controlled, periodic, and rotation burning for silvicultural
or forest-protection purposes, as related to grazing : This is particu-
larly important for the longleaf-slash pine ranges of the Coastal
Plain.
(2) Other silvicultural problems dealing with the conflict of graz-
ing and other forest uses : These problems are more prevalent in the
central and northern portions of the region where hardwood species
are valuable, and where tree seedlings and soils are particularly
susceptible to injury from fires and overgrazing.
(3) Watershed protection: Where erosion results from overgraz-
ing or from burning, the strict regulation or exclusion of grazing and
burning is essential.
(4) Forest wildlife relationships : Forest lands are the principal
home for wildlife in the South. Forest-land management, including
use and control of fire, may have an important bearing on the main-
tenance of wildlife.
Range management research should cover the following fields :
(1) Determination of relative forage values, at the different
seasons, of the important range plants.
(2) Methods of artificial reseeding and improving ranges.
(3) Grazing capacities of various types of ranges.
(4) Systems of range management.
Animal husbandry problems should include :
(1) Feeds and methods of winter feeding.
(2) The production of better livestock by selection and breeding.
(3) The proper care of animals, including such items as dehorn-
ing, castration, shelter, bedding, water, salt and mineral nutrients,
and particularly the control of disease and parasites such as the screw
worm.
Agronomy studies should include :
(1) Agronomic features of artificial reseeding and the develop-
ment of satisfactory improved and cultivated pastures.
J2) Local production of forage for fall and winter use.
~(3) Methods of culture of carpet grass for use on fire lines and
old fields.
(4) Improvement of plants for range and pastures through breed-
ing and selection.
In economics there is a need for :
(1) Land classification and surveys including a review of the
present status of the livestock industry.
(2) Determination of production costs.
64946—36 38
578 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
Range organization and management.
Group financing of improvements.
Cooperative marketing of products.
(6) Part-time forest employment of small stock owners.
(7) Manner and extent of harmonizing the economic aspects of
forestry, wildlife, and range uses.
The value of starting such a program in the immediate future
becomes more apparent when consideration is given to the social
benefits to be expected.
SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS ATTAINABLE
The southern people can be expected to accept changes permitting
a gradual rise in their standard of living. A forward-looking pro-
gram for the development of the southern livestock industry on for-
est ranges supplemented by improved pastures would benefit the
region socially, in the following ways: (1) It would increase the
quantity and quality of local food supplies. Meats of better quality
and dairy products for more of the people are needed throughout
the South. (2) It would increase the cash income of farmers.
Already the principal source of income from rural markets to many
small owners of livestock, the quality of meat produced locally has
yet to be developed to the point where it can reclaim the local urban
markets, now dominated by the meat products of other regions.
(3) By providing an annual return, landowners would be assisted
in meeting the carrying charges for protecting and managing forests
and farm woodland. The owners of small tracts of woodland, or the
managers of larger forests that have been overcut, can ill afford to
neglect this opportunity for additional income from livestock. (4)
It would assist in stabilizing agriculture, by promoting the diversi-
fication of farm products. Over considerable areas the boll weevil
has removed cotton as the money crop, leaving no single successor.
Crops of timber and livestock may well take a prominent place in a
more stable and diversified agriculture. (5) The improvement and
development of the southern livestock industry may be expected to
play an important role locally in maintaining communities that are
threatened with disintegration as a result of the temporary deple-
tion of timber or failure of cotton as their main source of support.
All of these benefits await the continued intelligent development
of the livestock industry on forest ranges and pastures as adapted to
local conditions, and as a part of progressive farm and forestry
practice.
ADDITIONAL LITERATURE ON SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES
GENERAL
ENOCHS, F. B.
EXPERIENCES IN CATTLLE RAISING ON CUT-OVER LANDS. PfOC. Cut-OVOr Land
Conf. of the South, pp. 93-96. 1917.
FARLEY, F. W.
GROWTH OF THE BEEF-CATTLE INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH. U. S. Dept. Agr. Year-
book 1917 : 327-340, illus. 1918.
and GREENE, S. W.
THE CUT-OVER PINE LANDS OF THE SOUTH FOR BEEF-CATTLE PRODUCTION. U. S.
Dept. Agr. Bull. 827, 51 pp., illus. 1921.
SOUTHERN FOREST RANGES 579
FERBIS, E. B.
DAIRYING ON OUT-OVER PINE LANDS. Miss. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 160, 24 pp.,
illus. 1913.
FOOTE, F. M.
UTILIZATION OF CUT-OVER LANDS FOR LIVE STOCK. W. Va. Dept. Agr. Bull. 30 I
32-35. 1917.
GREENE, S. W.
THE STOCKMAN'S INTEREST IN PROTECTING FOREST AND RANGE FROM FIRE.
South. Forestry Cong. Proc. 11: 52-59, illus. 1929.
HEYWAED, F., and BARNETTE, R. M.
EFFECT OF FREQUENT FIRES ON CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FOREST SOILS IN THE
LONGLEAF PINE REGION. Fla. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 265, 39 pp., illus. 1934.
HOLMES, J. S., and FOSTER,, J. H.
CONDITION OF CUT-OVER LONGLEAF PINE LANDS IN MISSISSIPPI. U. S. Dept.
Agr., Forest Serv. Circ. 149, 8 pp. 1908.
PBSSIN, L. J.
TIMBER AND CATTLE CAN BE RAISED TOGETHER ON SOUTHERN CUT-OVER LAND.
U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1930 : 512-514, illus. 1930.
TEMPLETON, G. S.
BEEF CATTLE PRODUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. Miss. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 268, 31
pp., illus. 1929.
WAHLENBERG, W. G.
EFFECT OF FIRE AND GRAZING ON SOIL PROPERTIES AND NATURAL REPRODUCTION OF
LONGLEAF PINE. Jour. Forestry 33 : 331-338. 1935.
ECONOMICS
JBURMEISTER, C. A., CoNWAY, H. M., and BRODELL, A. P.
ECONOMIC FACTORS AFFECTING THE BEEF-CATTLE INDUSTRY OF VIRGINIA. U. S.
Dept. Agr. Tech. Bull. 237, 66 pp., illus. 1931.
HOBBS, S. H.
NORTH CAROLINA, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. 403 pp., illus. University of North
Carolina Press. 1930.
JENNINGS, R. D., and CROSBY, M. A.
AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF LIVESTOCK POSSIBILITIES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN
COASTAL PLAIN. U. S. Dept. Agr. Tech. Bull. 127, 96 pp., illus. 1929.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE GEOLOGIST AND STATE FORESTER.
A STATE-WIDE STOCK LAW FOR NORTH CAROLINA. N. C. Geol. and Econ. Survey
Press Bull. 97, 3 pp. 1912.
SHEALY, A. L.
BEEF PRODUCTION IN FLORIDA. Fla. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 260, 54 pp., illus.
1933.
VlNALL, H. N.
PASTURE IMPROVEMENT T'HE FIRST NEED IN STRENGTHENING SOUTH'S LIVESTOCK
INDUSTRY. U. S. Dept. Agr. Yearbook 1931 : 421-424, illus. 1931.
FORAGE
ALDOUS, A. E.
EFFECT OF BURNING ON KANSAS BLUESTEM PASTURES. KanS. Agr. Expt. Sta.
Tech. Bull. 38, 65 pp., illus. 1934.
BLAIR, E. C.
LESPEDEZA IN NORTH CAROLINA. N. C. Agr. Col. Ext. Circ. 195, 8 pp., illus.
1933,
and KIMREY, A. C.
PASTURES IN NORTH CAROLINA. N. C. Agr. Col. Ext. Circ. 202, 12 pp., illus.
1934.
CAMP, P. D.
A STUDY OF RANGE CATTLE MANAGEMENT IN ALACHUA COUNTY, FLORIDA. Fla.
Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 248, 28 pp., illus. 1932.
CARRIER, LYMAN, and OAKLEY, R. A.
THE MANAGEMENT OF BLUE-GRASS PASTURES. Va. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 204,
18 pp., illus. 1914.
DUSTMAN, R. B., and VAN LANDINGHAM, A. H.
THE CHEMICAL: COMPOSITION OF CONSECUTIVE CUTTINGS OF ANDROPOGON VIR-
GINICUS AND DANTHENIA SPiCATA. Jour. Amer. Soc. Agron. 22(8) : 719-724,
illus. 1930.
580 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
GILBERT, L. D.
TIMBER GROWING AND LIVE STOCK PRODUCTION. South Forestry Cong. Proc. 9 :
86-88. 1927.
GREENE, S. W.
PERMANENT PASTURES FOR PINE LANDS. Lumber Trade Jour. 95(2) : 24. 1929.
HENSEL, R. L.
EFFECT OF BURNING ON VEGETATION IN KANSAS PASTURES, JOUI*. Agr. Research
23: 631-643, illus. 1923.
RECENT STUDIES ON THE EFFECT OF BURNING ON GRASSLAND VEGETATION. Ecol-
ogy 4 : 18&-188, illus. 1923.
ROLFS, P. H.
RHODES GRASS. Fla. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 138 : 183-190, illus. 1917.
SCOTT, J. M.
BAHIA GRASS. Fla. Agr. Expt. Sta. Press Bull. 320, 2 pp. 1920.
PERMANENT PASTURES FOR FLORIDA. Fla. Dept. Agr. Bull. (n. s.) 27, 46 pp.,
illus. 1929.
TABOR, P., and ALEXANDER, E. D.
PASTURES FOR GEORGIA. Ga. State Col. Agr. Bull. 389, v. 19, 32 pp., illus.
1930.
THOMPSON, J. B.
CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF THE BERMUDA GRASS PASTURE. Fla. Agr. Expt,
Sta. Press Bull. 312, 2 pp. 1919.
NAPIER AND MERKER GRASSES-TWO NEW FORAGE CROPS FOR FLORIDA. Fla.
Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 153: 237-249, illus. 1919.
SOME FLORIDA GRASSES. Fla. Univ. Agr. Ext. Bull. 28, 44 pp., illus. 1921.
TRACY, S. M.
FORAGE FOR THE COTTON BELT. U. S. Dept. Agr. Farmers Bull. 1125, 63 pp.,
illus. 1920.
ANIMALS
BECKER, R. B. ; NEAL, W. M. ; and SHEALY, A. L.
1. SALT SICK: ITS CAUSE AND PREVENTION1. 2. MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR
CATTLE. Fla. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 231, 23 pp., illus. 1931.
BLACK, W. H.
FEEDING BEEF CATTLE IN FLORIDA. Fla. Univ. Agr. Expt. Bull. 26, 19 pp.
illus. 1920.
DVORACHEK, H. E., and SEMPLE, A. T.
BEEF PRODUCING QUALITIES OF PUREBRED ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE COMPARED
WITH ARKANSAS NATIVE CATTLE. Ark. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 247, 19 pp.,
illus. 1931.
KNAPP, BRADFORD, JR., and SHEALY, A. L.
BEEF CATTLE IMPROVEMENT IN FLORIDA. I. IMPROVEMENT OF BEEF HERDS
THROUGH BREEDING. II. A METHOD OF GRADING RANGE BREEDING COWS. Fla.
Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 281, 22 pp., illus. 1935.
LEFFELMAN, L. J.
FOREST AND GAME MANAGEMENT IN SOUTH CAROLINA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO GAME BIRDS. Jour. Forestry 31 : 658-663. 1933.
LEOPOLD, ALDO.
REPORT ON A GAME SURVEY OF MISSISSIPPI. ( Submitted to the Game Restora-
tion Committee, Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Insti-
tute.) 215 pp., illus. 1929. [Typewritten.]
LEVECK, H. H., and BUCHANAN, D. S.
SHEEP PRODUCTION IN MISSISSIPPI. Miss. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bull. 260, 36 pp.,
illus. 1928.
MOHLER, J. R.
IMPROVING CATTLE IN AREAS FREED OF TICKS. U. S. Dept AgT. Leaflet
51, 8 pp., illus. 1929. (Revised 1933.)
STODDARD, H. L.
THE BOBWHITE QUAIL: ITS HABITS, PRESERVATION, AND INCREASE. 559 pp.,
illus. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. 1931.
ALASKA
By B. F. HEINTZLEMAN', Principal Forester
In 1867 the United States purchased from Russia the vast terri-
tory then known as Russian America but now designated as Alaska.
Despite an occupancy covering more than three-fourths of a cen-
tury, the Russians left the country in much the same condition as
they had found it — an unbroken wilderness. General colonization
was not fostered and the white population was confined almost
exclusively to the officials and employees of the fur company which
was the dominant factor in the affairs of the Territory. Operations
were confined chiefly to the exploitation of the sea otter and seal
of the coastal waters and the upland furbearers of the coastal areas.
These activities involved little use or even exploration of the great
land mass.
American sovereignty brought no abrupt change. For three
decades the white population was inconsiderable, and it was not
until the great gold rushes, around the turn of the century, that
white men became well dispersed over the country. The placer-
mining activity brought many thousands of men into the Territory
but the excitement subsided after 10 or 15 years, and the majority of
the goldseekers departed. Although gradually increasing for the
past 20 years, the present number of inhabitants, white and native,
equals only one person to 10 square miles. Most of the population
is concentrated in coastal towns and villages and is employed in
industrial enterprises involving little land use.
There has thus been no extensive development and use of the
available land resources to date. In interior and arctic Alaska,
however, the white occupation brought with it continuous devasta-
tion by fire of timber, grass, and tundra cover which are needed to
support the varied and abundant existing wildlife and to provide a
basis for future increased settlement. There has also been some
serious deterioration of range lands on portions of the Bering Sea
coast through overgrazing by reindeer.
Present conditions in Alaska with respect to the land resources
are comparable to those which prevailed in the West 60 or more
years ago, before the great tide of western settlement was well
- under way.
To avoid mistakes similar to those made in connection with the
development of the West and to correct existing bad practices, a
program of protection and planned use should be initiated at an
early date for those extensive public-owned resources of Alaska
which have not yet been brought under careful management.
GEOGRAPHIC AND PHYSICAL FEATURES
Alaska has an area of 586,400 square miles. It is one-fifth the
size of continental United States and nearly equals in extent the
581
582 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
Rocky Mountain States of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New
Mexico, and Arizona. Though it forms the northwest extremity of
the North American continent, only one-fourth of its area is north
of the Arctic Circle. Its position with regard to latitude is about
the same as that of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the town of
Seward on the south coast is located on about the same parallel as
Oslo, Norway.
The Territory can easily be classified into four geographic divi-
sions (fig. 87) , as follows :
Arctic slope. — The Arctic slope includes all lands draining into-
the Arctic Ocean north of the Seward Peninsula. Its southern limit
is the high, Brooks Range and some lower mountains to the west
which together form the divide between the Yukon and Arctic drain-
age areas. The topography of the Arctic slope consists of a broad
low-lying area along the shores of the Arctic Ocean which is gradu-
ally succeeded by rolling ridges and steep slopes as the crest of the
Brooks Range is approached. The size of this division is 114,460
square miles.
Interior. — The interior division extends from the Arctic divide on
the north to the crest of the Chugach Mountains on the southern
coast. It includes the large drainage areas of the Yukon River and
Kuskokwim River, the high Alaska Range in the central part of the
Territory, and the region between the Alaska Range and the Chugach
Mountains which drains south, through breaks in the Chugach divide,
to the Pacific Ocean. Aside from the steep slopes of the three moun-
tain ranges mentioned, this region is one of high plateaus, ridges of
moderate slope and height, and broad flat valley floors. In the Yukon
and Kuskokwim drainages the plateau section gives way, in the west-
ern or lower river sections, to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a very
wide strip of marshland across which the two rivers flow to reach
Bering Sea. The size of this division is 373,465 square miles.
Southern. — The southern division consists of the coastal strip south
of the crest of the Chugach Mountains and west of Meridian 141°,.
the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and the Kodiak Island group.
The mountains extend to the shores of tidewater and the topography
is very rough. The area is 62,915 square miles.
Southeastern. — The southeastern division 52 is composed of the nar-
row strip of mainland and adjacent chain of islands lying east of
52 Southeastern Alaska is the most accessible and populous section of the Territory, and"
appears to offer the best opportunity for an early and material expansion in economic
development. Its population in 1930 was 19,304 of which 12,877 were whites and the
remainder native Indians. It has dense forests of the western hemlock-Sitka spruce
type and the volume of standing timber on the Tongass National Forest is estimated to
be 78.5 billion board feet. An important local sawmill industry is located in this region,
but the timber resources are primarily valuable as raw material for a prospective pulp
and paper manufacturing industry. Under proper forestry practices the timberlands of
this region can produce approximately 1,000,000 tons of newsprint paper each year in
perpetuity.
The principal existing industries are fishing, mining, and lumbering. The agricultural
possibilities are small because of the steep topography, wet weather during the growing
season, and the difficulties of clearing the densely forested lands. Home gardens are
very productive.
The only extensive open lands consist of wet "muskegs" (peat bogs) within the forost
areas, and grass and brush areas above timber line. With few exceptions these lands
are more valuable for the support of game animals than domestic stock and will continue
to be so used.
Deer and black bear are well distributed and quite numerous. Grizzly bears are found
on the mainland areas and the big brown bear on three of the principal islands. A
management plan has been provided for the big brown bears on Admiralty Island, one
of the three islands indicated above.
The Glacier Bay National Monument of 1,820 square miles is located in this region.
Its outstanding feature is a group of tidewater glaciers, but the area is also a bird and
wildlife sanctuary.
ALASKA
583
meridian 141° and extending southeast from the main body of the
Territory for 400 miles along the west side of British Columbia. This
is strictly a region of rough, rugged topography. The area is 35,560
square miles. This section of the Territory has been included in the
Tongass National Forest, the resources of which are now under
adequate administration. The forest area is 25,900 square miles.
The present account of Alaskan land resources deals primarily with
the main area of the Territory, i. e., with the Arctic, interior, and
southern sections and excludes southeastern Alaska.
FIGURE 87. — Alaska is equal in size to the Rocky Mountain States — Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. With the exception of the 85,560 square miles
in the southeastern, region, practically all of the Territory is suitable for the use
either of wildlife, reindeer, or domestic livestock.
CLIMATE OF THE MAIN AREA
The Territory has a wide range of climate. Arctic conditions pre-
vail in the extreme north, the interior compares with the prairie
Provinces of Canada, and the whole Pacific coastal strip, with its
moderate winter temperatures and heavy precipitation, bears a strik-
ing climatic resemblance to the coast of British Columbia, Washing-
ton, and Oregon. The high range of mountains lying parallel and
adjacent to the southern coast blocks progress inland of the warm
moisture-laden winds from the Pacific, and consequently interior
584 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
Alaska has a light precipitation and the low winter temperature
typical of lands of its high latitude.
The Arctic region has a mean temperature of 38° to 45° F. in
summer and —16° to —10° F. in winter. The annual precipitation
is approximately 6 to 8 inches. Interior Alaska areas have short,
warm summers, with mean temperatures ranging from 50° to 58° F.,
and long winters, with mean temperatures between 0° and —20° F.
The annual precipitation is between 7 and 20 inches. In the south-
ern region the mean temperature for summer is between 50° and
55° F., and for winter from 20° to 35° F. The rainfall varies be-
tween 50 and 190 inches. Much of the ground in the interior and
Arctic regions is permanently frozen to bedrock. In the interior
region the surface ordinarily thaws to a depth, of 18 to 24 inches
during the summer months, but with the removal of the usual dense
ground cover of moss the soil gradually becomes free of permanent
frost to much greater depths. No permanently frozen ground is
found in the Pacific coastal strip.
Permanent icefields and glaciers, though prominent features of
Alaska, cover only a small percentage of the land area, and are largely
limited to the mountain system along the south coast and to the
slopes of the high Alaska Range.
POPULATION
The population in 1930 of the main area of Alaska consisted of
15,763 whites and 24,211 Indians and Eskimos— total, 39,974. The
Arctic slope north of Seward Peninsula accounts for 2,857 of the
above — 118 whites and 2,739 Eskimos.
The number of persons living in towns and villages of more than
250 inhabitants was 12,050 of both races.
The gainful workers of both sexes and all races was 18,201. The
principal classes of employment were mining, fishing, trapping,
farming (general, fur, reindeer), lumbering, and the service indus-
tries supporting the workers in these activities.
LAND STATUS
Title to the lands of Alaska is almost entirely in the Federal Gov-
ernment. Perhaps not to exceed 1 percent of the area has passed to
private ownership. Portions of the Federal lands have been with-
drawn from private entry under the public-land laws and are adminis-
tered for specialized purposes, but the greater part of the Territory
remains in the status of open public domain.
Following are the principal withdrawn areas 53 on which protec-
tion and planned use of the land and its vegetative-cover resources
are given consideration:
Chugach National Forest— area, 7,533 square miles— located on
the southern coastal strip of the main body of the Territory; held
primarily for continuous timber production. All of its resources
are given protection and are subject to use under appropriate
restrictions.
63 Excluding southeastern Alaska.
ALASKA 585
McKinley National Park — area, 3,030 square miles — located on the
Alaska Kange in interior Alaska; reserved primarily for its scenic
features. All of its land and cover resources are given protection.
Is a bird and wildlife sanctuary.
Katmai National Monument — area, 4,275 square miles — located on
Alaska Peninsula; a bird and wildlife sanctuary; reserved to give
protection to its unique physical features.
Aleutian Islands Bird and Wildlife Kefuge — covers all of the
islands of this chain, including Unimak Island on the extreme east.
All forms of bird and wild animal life are protected.
LAND AND COVER RESOURCES — THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE
VEGETATION
The narrow strip of country south of the crest of the mountains
on the southern coast and west to Cook Inlet is characterized by
forests of the type, designated as the coast forest, that occurs as a
narrow coastal belt from southern Alaska to Oregon. With this
exception the vegetative cover types of the Territory are those which
commonly prevail throughout the sub-Arctic and Arctic sections
of the North American Continent.
THE COAST FOREST EEGION
The western hemlock-Sitka spruce forests are composed of dense
stands averaging 15,000 to 20,000 board feet per acre of valuable
saw timber. A dense understory of brush, with blueberry predomi-
nating, is usually present, and the ground is blanketed with a thick
mat of moss. The timber cover is broken at frequent intervals by
brush patches and muskegs. The altitudinal limit of tree growth
varies between 1,000 and 2,500 feet above sea level. Above these
elevations the forest is succeeded by brush, grass, and herbs. The
mountain tops, above 4,000 feet, are usually bare. Due to the humid
climate of this region, the vegetative cover has suffered little from
fire. The sections of this region in which timber predominates are
largely included in the Chugach National Forest.
INTERIOR FOREST REGION
The most prevalent type of the so-called interior forest, lying
north of the coast forest region, is a mixture of white spruce and
Alaska white birch with northern black cottonwood a frequent
associate. It occupies the better-drained soils of valley floors,
benches, rolling ground, and the lower slopes of the high ridges.
Growth is very slow. The white spruce reaches a larger size than
the other species but rarely exceeds 18 inches in diameter and 50 to
60 feet in height. The type most frequently occurs as open wood-
lands. Stands of sufficient density to be classed as forests are com-
mon but seldom continuous over extensive areas.
The altitudinal limit of the white spruce-white birch type may
be as high as 2,500 feet or more above sea level for the region as a
whole, but in many places, because of adverse local conditions, it is
much lower.
586 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
A second forest type occurs on the wet lowlands. The trees are
short and gnarled, rarely exceed 6 inches in diameter, and occur as
scattered individuals or in small groups. The predominating species
is black spruce, but stunted tamarack, white spruce, and Alaska
white birch are frequently present, especially on patches of some-
what better-drained soils.
Open stands of aspen occur on steep, dry slopes and thickets of
alder and willow on valley floors.
Both the dense and fairly dense timber areas carry a moderate
growth of brush and a deep ground cover of moss and lichens. The
open stands of timber have a heavy growth of brush, principally
ground birch and alder. The very extensive wet lowlands support
dense stands of low willows, other shrubs, lichens, and herbaceous
growth. The better drained soils of the river bars and benches are
covered with grasses and weeds.
From timber line to elevations between 4,000 and 5,000 feet the
cover is composed largely of brush and lichens. The grasses do not
occur widely here. This high range is of greater forage value than
the range below timber line.
The forest zone of the main area of the Territory extends north
to the south slope of the Brooks Range and west to Norton Sound,
Bethel on the Kuskokwim River, and the base of the Alaska Penin-
sula. No satisfactory estimate of the actual acreage within this
zone covered with forests is available, but a conservative guess places
the extent of the dense and open woodland stands at between 100,000
and 125,000 square miles, or 64 to 80 million acres. The average
stand per acre is probably about 7 cords giving an estimated total
volume of between 448 million and 560 million cords.
NONFOREST KEGIONS
The nonforest sections consist of grasslands and tundra. The
principal grassland areas are the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands,
Kodiak Island, and some nearby small island groups. This portion
of the southern Alaska coast is beyond the western limits of the
western hemlock- Sitka spruce forest and the lower slopes of the
prevailing mountainous lands are clothed with a dense, waist-high
growth of grass and herbs from tidewater to high elevations. Low-
lying lands at the heads of bays carry heavy stands of beach grasses
and sedges. Thickets of stunted alders are found in scattered
patches in the bottom of ravines and other protected spots.
The tundra area lies to the north and west of the forest region. It
includes the vast strip of low-lying land comprising the Kuskokwim-
Yukon Delta near the shores of Bering Sea, the rolling lands which
constitute Seward Peninsula, and the whole of the Arctic slope.
The tundra cover is composed of sedges, dwarf shrubs, • lichens,
mosses, weeds, and grasses. Wet and dry tundra are recognized as
separate vegetative types based on a difference in the composition
of the species but both form a full cover and have high forage value.
The rocky ridges have a more open and dwarfed cover. Thickets
of tall willow occur along many of the streams, and scattered patches
of alder and birch are found in the valleys and on upper slopes.
No surveys have ever been made to determine the extent of the
cover types of Alaska. The estimated areas of the zones in which
ALASKA 587
each of the principal cover types predominates are given below
merely as an indication of the area of the types. The estimates do
not exclude barren areas within the outside boundaries of the zones.
Square
miles
Western hemlock-Sitka spruce forest zone (west of meridian 141°) 7,500
White spruce, birch forest zone 337, 925
Tundra zone 150, 000
Alaska Peninsula-Aleutian Island grassland zone 55, 415
Total of main area51 550,840
The maintenance of the vegetative cover of the forest, grass, and
tundra lands is essential to the present and future welfare of Alaska.
The social and economic development of the greater part of the Ter-
ritory, both present and potential, is largely predicated on farming,
mining, reindeer grazing, cattle and sheep raising, and the use of the
abundant wildlife. The extent to which these activities can be main-
tained and expanded is dependent in large measure on the protection
.and proper use of the cover resources.
The agricultural areas are situated in the forested sections and the
pioneer Alaska farmer must draw constantly and heavily on the local
forests for fuel, building materials, fencing, and many other uses.
He also needs grass and browse cover as forage for domestic live-
stock. The mining industry uses the local forests extensively. In
many localities they are the only source of fuel and timber needed in
mining operations. The reindeer herdsmen and cattle and sheep
raisers are even more dependent than the farmer and miner on the
maintenance of the vegetative cover for a livelihood. The pros-
pector, trapper, fur rancher, and, in fact, everyone who is engaged
in any outdoor pursuit in this pioneer region is dependent in many
ways on one or a number of items comprising the cover resources.
Growth in the interior forest is so slow that even under good
protection and management it may fall short of fully supplying the
timber needs of the future local population. Little of the interior
timber will ever come into the general timber-products markets.
Birch trees of the best quality are suitable for cabinet-making and
may be removed from some of the more accessible areas, such as
around the head of Cook Inlet, for shipment to Pacific Northwest
factories. In the distant future some of the more accessible white
spruce may be shipped south for pulp manufacture.
Game animals and fur bearers which occupy a highly important
place in the economy of Alaska cannot exist without cover. Its
value as food supply to the carnivores is indirect in that it is re-
quired by the rabbits, rodents, and other small animals on which the
carnivores prey.
AGRICULTURE
The existing and potential agricultural areas of Alaska are esti-
mated to be 65,000 square miles. The principal agricultural locali-
ties cover portions of the main valleys of the Tanana, Kuskokwim,
and Yukon Rivers in the Interior Plateau region, and the Matanuska
Valley and the west side of Kenai Peninsula in the vicinity of Cook
"Exclusive of southeastern Alaska with 35,560 square miles composed largely of
western hemlock-Sitka spruce forest cover.
588 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
Inlet. The better agricultural lands usually occur on the low benches
and on moderate slopes at the bases of the ridges but occasionally on
valley floors. They are not continuous over extensive areas but are
broken by patches of little agricultural value.
The crops now being raised consist largely of spring wheat, oats,
barley, peas, vetch, potatoes, carrots, and rutabagas. Quickly ma-
turing strains of the three grain crops first mentioned have been
developed to meet the climatic conditions of the region. Oats, brome,
and vetch are the main hay crops. Dairying is an important feature
of farming because of the high local demand for dairy products.
The soil of the coastal strip south of the Chugach Mountains is
capable of producing good garden crops but has little value for agri-
culture owing to the cool, wet weather during the growing season
and the expense of land clearing.
The 1930 census showed the total number of farms in the Terri-
tory, outside of southeastern Alaska, to be 298 and the improved
area of farm land 6,270 acres. The total number of livestock in
the region at that time was approximately 6.800 sheep, 1,400 cattle,
and 300 horses.
REINDEER GRAZING
Reindeer were introduced into Alaska from Siberia to provide the
Eskimos with an additional and more dependable source of food
supply than the game and fish on which they had previously and
almost exclusively relied. Between the years 1891 and 1902 a total
of 1,280 animals was placed on Seward Peninsula in the general
vicinity of Bering Straits and from this original stock have grown
the present extensive herds with an estimated yield of 1 million ani-
mals. The industry is confined almost wholly to the tundra areas
of the Territory and herds are now found in the coastal areas of
Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean from Kodiak Island and the Alaska
Peninsula on the south to Point Barrow on the north. Tundra lands
are peculiarly well suited to reindeer grazing owing to the presence
of a suitable forage cover and the ease of herding. Also, the popula-
tion of northwest and west Alaska is largely concentrated along the
coast, and the industry has logically developed on the nearby range
which is almost exclusively tundra.
The animals furnish a wide variety of products. The meat is used
for food, the offal from butchering for dog feed, and the skins for
winter clothing for local use as well as for fine leather. Reindeer
are used to some extent in Alaska as a means of transportation, but
seldom as milk animals.
Reindeer raising has become an established industry carried on by
both Eskimos and whites. The number of animals has increased far
beyond the local needs, and meat, hides, and other products are now
sold in the general American markets.
The animals are raised on the open range and herded to prevent
straying. They are grazed throughout the year and rely entirely on
the range food supply. The practice in the industry is to confine each
herd to a separate natural topographic unit which comprises both
summer and winter range and has fawning grounds as well as build-
ings, corrals, and other necessary improvements.
The reindeer is closely related to the wild caribou and intermin-
gling of the two classes of animals produces losses to the herd
ALASKA 589
owner in the straying away of reindeer with the caribou. Inter-
mingling is also undesirable because the caribou as a game animal
should be kept pure in strain. The coming of the reindeer industry
thus requires the sacrifice of the caribou on the same range and this
necessitates the elimination of caribou from the coastal areas of the
Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.
Examination of the range conditions in localities where reindeer
grazing has been carried on for some years shows a great need for
effective range management. In many cases great damage has been
done to the cover, and range specialists state that from 15 to 40 or
more years are required to bring back to depleted lands the lichens
that are so important to the industry.
CATTLE AND SHEEP RAISING
The agricultural areas of the interior and the Cook Inlet locali-
ties, because of forage conditions as well as market demands, are
better suited to dairying and to cattle raising as a feature of general
farming than to large specialized stock-raising enterprises.
The grasslands of the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and
Kodiak Island appear to be well suited to the raising of cattle and
sheep on an extensive scale and eventually large sections of these
lands will doubtless be brought into use by the livestock industry.
Favorable features include the heavy forage cover, a long grazing
season due to the relatively mild winter climate, and the possibility
of harvesting the extensive stands of beach grasses and sedges for
hay and silage. The attempts made to date to establish the industry
here have not been very successful, owing in large part to inade-
quate transportation facilities for reaching the more populous parts
of the Territory and the cities of the Pacific Northwest, but it is
anticipated that this disadvantage will sometime be eliminated.
Important waterfowl and wild game sanctuaries are located in the
grassland sections of the Territory. Grazing privileges may have
to be withheld or specially restricted on some of these sanctuaries.
WILDLIFE
Alaska is rich in wildlife resources and is recognized as one of the
outstanding game areas of the world for wilderness animals. The
game contributes to the food supply and the furbearers to the cash
income of isolated local inhabitants, but the greatest value of the
. wildlife to the Territory results from its being an attraction to
hunters, naturalists, photographers, painters, tourists, and other
visitors. The local economic benefits are not, however, the only
reason for keeping the Territory well stocked. The general public
of the United States, with a stake in the federally owned lands of
Alaska, is interested in maintaining abundant wildlife resources as a
recreational feature for public enjoyment.
After making a liberal allowance of lands for the further expan-
sion of the reindeer, agricultural, and stock-raising industries there
remains a vast area with a vegetative cover that can be utilized profit-
ably for the support of a large and varied wildlife population. Also,
lands to be used later for the industries mentioned above can provide
support for wildlife until needed for these other purposes.
590 THE WESTERN KANGE — APPENDIX
The notable big-game animals of the Territory include the group
of huge bears known as the Alaska brown bear, various species of
the grizzly bear group, the polar bears of the Arctic seas, moose, and
white mountain sheep. Other valuable wild animals are caribou,
black bear, glacier bear, mountain goat, Sitka blacktail deer, and
rabbits. Breeding grounds for wild ducks, geese, and a multitude of
other migratory birds are found on the shores of the Arctic Ocean
and the Bering Sea. Upland game birds include ptarmigan and
grouse. The fur-bearing animals include black,, silver, gray, blue,,
and white foxes, the martin, beaver, otter, mink, ermine, muskrat,
and wolverine.
The Alaska brown bears, of which the Kodiak bear is the largest
individual species, are the largest carnivorous animals in the world.
They occur on the islands and in the coastal sections of southern
Alaska from southeastern Alaska to the Aleutian Archipelago, and
have a range of not less than 100,000 square miles. The grizzly
bears, close relatives of the Alaska brown bear, are found over most
of the Territory. These two groups of bears are of outstanding in-
terest to big game hunters and students of wildlife. They are fairly
numerous and are thought to be increasing in numbers as the result
of good enforcement in the past 15 years of the law against the sale
of pelts. A careful estimate of the number of Alaska brown bears
on Admiralty Island in southeastern Alaska, made in connection with
the establishment of a bear-management plan for the island, showed
a population of 900 on the island area of 1,664 square miles, or 1
animal to 1.85 square miles. The stocking on this island is doubtless
somewhat heavier than on the range as a whole.
The moose closely follows the brown and grizzly bears in public
interest. It occurs throughout most of the timbered section of the
Territory. Kenai Peninsula, east of Cook Inlet, has the largest speci-
mens of moose and an unusually heavy concentration of animals.
The white mountain sheep is found in large numbers along almost
the full length of the Alaska Range, over great sections of the Brooks
Range, and in parts of the Chugach and Kenai Mountains on the-
south coast. The steady increase in the number of rabbits in recent
years has been beneficial to the sheep in that its natural enemies —
wolf, coyote, and tynx — now have this alternate source of food.
The caribou is the most numerous of all Alaska big-game animals.
Various estimates of the population of the five more or less distinct
herds which are recognized are around 1 million. It is widely dis-
tributed throughout the high country of the interior plateau region,
Alaska Range, and Brooks Range, and along the full length of the
Alaska Peninsula. While the caribou is not highly prized by big-
game hunters, its occurrence in vast numbers in the wilderness areasr
its migrations, and other equally interesting features add greatly to
the pleasure of visiting sportsmen and tourists. It constitutes an
important source of food supply for the pioneer in the isolated sec-
tions of the Territory. The caribou, in fact, occupies a position in
Alaska quite similar to that occupied by the bison in the Western
States, and both sentiment and economic considerations dictate that
it should be maintained in large numbers.
ALASKA 591
Black bears are found throughout most of Alaska, except in the
treeless regions. Glacier bears are confined in the mountain system
of the southern coast.
Mountain goats are found in the mountains of the southern coast
eastward o.f Cook Inlet, and north to the Wrangell Mountains.
Deer, while abundant in southeastern Alaska, do not occur natur-
ally on the main area of! the Territory. Several years ago some
small islands in Prince William Sound were successfully planted
with deer, and good-sized herds are now found in that locality.
Snowshoe rabbits and Arctic hares abound in most sections of the
Territory and are again on the increase. The rabbit population is
subject to violent but regular fluctuations with the peak being
reached about every ninth year. In the years of greatest concen-
tration they often jeopardize the supply of browse required as win-
ter feed by game animals, but, on the other hand, their increased
number constitutes an enlarged food supply for most of fur bearers.
The fur bearers of the Territory are widely distributed and re-
ports of game and fur wardens indicate that the number of animals
is now on the increase. Such increase is probably due to lessened
trapping during the business depression and to the present large
rabbit population. By furnishing employment with a cash return
to many local inhabitants both white and native, the fur bearers
are an important economic resource for a pioneer country in which
the opportunities for earning cash are restricted. Fur farming^
especially the raising of foxes, has become an industry of some im-
portance. The value of the furs shipped from Alaska from 1912
to 1934 was $39,600,000.
Migratory waterfowl breed in large numbers on the extensive
tundra and marshlands, particularly of the Arctic Slope, Yukon
Delta, Yukon Flats, islands of the Bering Sea, and the Aleutian
Island chain. These nesting grounds contribute to the supply of
birds using the Mississippi flyway along the main drainage of the
Mississippi River, the central flyway of the high plains and Rocky
Mountain region, and the Pacific flyway which leads directly down
the Pacific coast.
Migratory waterfowl are in the front rank of wildlife resources
and unfortunately the supply of birds over the vast interior section
of the United States has become greatly depleted, owing to the de-
struction of breeding grounds as a result of the drainage of shallow
lakes and marshes for agricultural use and the widespread drought
conditions which prevailed in the 5 years following the 1929 nesting
season. The nesting grounds of the northern and northwestern sec-
tions of Alaska have thus become of increasing importance in the
maintenance and replenishment of the bird supply in these more
southerly regions.
The nesting grounds of Alaska are excellent. They are well
watered and possess the equally valuable feature of remoteness. The
human population of the major wildfowl localities is small and there
is little danger of any material increase in human encroachment in
the near future. The only adverse feature of importance is the oc-
currence of wolves and coyotes which prey on the birds and eggs.
Measures to control these predatory animals are badly needed.
592 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
PREDATORY ANIMALS
The principal predators are coyotes and wolves. Wolves have long
been troublesome, but only recently have coyotes become a serious
problem in Alaska. Coyotes have been spreading to the northwest
in North America for many years, and they first entered the Terri-
tory about 25 years ago, but as late as 1925 they were not an impor-
tant factor in game losses. They are now very numerous and occur
as far as Point Barrow to the northwest and Kenai Peninsula to the
southwest. They are preying heavily on caribou, fur bearers, moun-
tain sheep, upland birds, and on nesting waterfowl on the north-
western coast.
The Biological Survey carried on control activities in Alaska in the
period 1927 to 1931, but terminated the work on the latter date be-
cause of lack of funds. A bounty is offered by the Territory on
coyotes and wolves, but this control measure has not proved highly
effective in reducing or even holding in check the number of these
animals.
FIRE
The outstanding menace to wildlife, reindeer grazing, stock raising,
and agricultural development, except in the humid south coast region,
is the depletion of the vegetative coyer by fire. The effects of fire
far transcend in importance the combined results of all other agencies
which work toward the depletion of the valuable land resources of the
Territory. The scant precipitation, the high proportion of daylight
hours combined with warm weather in the summer months, and the
occurrence of a continuous matlike ground cover of vegetation con-
stitute a high fire hazard. Not uncommonly a fire will rage for many
weeks and extend over hundreds of square miles before being checked
by natural barriers such as rivers or by the coming of the fall rains.
In one specific instance noted, a fire that started in the spring was
still burning in September. A fire in the Illiamna Lake region at the
base of the Alaska Peninsula, which was reported in June 1935 by
airplane pilots as constituting a menace to air travel due to the smoke,
had then been burning for 2 weeks and had advanced 50 miles. In
the same summer a fire in the Kvichak River section, burning for
more than 2 months in brush, grass, tundra, and scrub timber, covered
an area estimated at 1,000 square miles in a region formerly teeming
with wildlife of every sort. Numerous fires, many of which have been
burning unmolested for long periods, can be seen in the course of a
trip during the summer months along any main route of travel.
The most accessible localities, such as those around settlements and
along roads, trails, and navigable rivers, have suffered the greatest
fire damage and exhibit extensive areas of continuous burn and large
tracts that have been almost denuded as the result of repeated fires.
This devastation goes on year after year in almost every section of
the Territory north of the Pacific coastal strip and has been a serious
matter since 1900, at least. No satisfactory estimates can be made of
the extent of the damage done to date, but it is safe to say that tens
of millions of acres have been fire-swept at least once, and much of this
area two or more times, in the past 35 years. As long ago as 1915
an interested observer estimated that fires had covered an average of
ALASKA 593
1 million acres a year in the preceding 20 years. The slow growth
of much of the vegetation in this sub-Arctic region, especially lichens
and the principal tree species, results in an exceedingly slow recovery
of the burned-over areas.
Fires in Alaska are almost wholly man caused (lightning being
a negligible factor) and are due in large measure to a lack of ap-
preciation of their damaging effects on the vegetative cover and
hence on the enterprises which this cover helps to support. Hunt-
ers, prospectors, wood cutters, and all classes of travelers leave be-
hind them live camp fires and mosquito smudges which frequently
lead to extensive burns. Fires used in land-clearing operations
for cabin sites, homesteads, and placer mining are often set with no
thought of preventing their spread to the surrounding wild lands.
In fact, a majority of persons who travel, work, or live on the open
range handle fire in a casual way that indicates a failure to realize
that unrestrained burning is draining away a large share of the re-
sources on which the Territory is dependent for its continued well-
being. The past few years, however, have witnessed a considerable
change of sentiment in this matter. Increasing visual evidence of
the fire damage to resources, the objection of tourists to the smoke
pall which obscures the scenery, and the interference of the smoke
with airplane travel are all factors that work in that direction. The
last-named is important, as air transportation is widely used in
Alaska. It is believed that, with aggressive leadership, a predomi-
nant sentiment against fire could soon be obtained.
FEDERAL AGENCIES IN CHARGE or LAND AND COVER RESOURCES
THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
The Department of the Interior administers practically all the
lands of the main area of Alaska, the exceptions being the Chugach
National Forest and a few areas of relatively small size. The
Mount McKinley National Park and the Katmai National Monu-
ment are in charge of the National Park Service of this Department,
but the great bulk of the lands have the status of open public domain
and thus come under the supervision of the General Land Office. It
is the open public domain that is subject to the high fire risk, is
suffering the heavy losses, and has suffered such losses over a period
of 35 years.
The fire-protection efforts of the Federal Government on the open
Eublic domain at this time are almost negligible. The General
and Office in recent years has been employing a few men tempo-
rarily during the fire season for protective work in the vicinity of
some of the larger towns. The Government-owned Alaska Rail-
road takes steps to prevent and suppress operating fires along the
right-of-way. Any additional measures taken are very limited in
scope or restricted to small areas.
No serious attempt has ever been made to provide adequate fire
protection on the open public domain of Alaska. Good results
can be obtained only through the formulation and conscientious ap-
plication year after year of a broad, well-considered plan of organ-
64946 — 36 39
594 THE WESTERN KANGE APPENDIX
ization and operation. If such a plan had been initiated by the Fed-
eral Government for these Alaska lands between the years 1905 and
1910, when the national forests of the Western States were being
brought under planned protection, and had the plan been carefully
followed thereafter, the cover resources would still be almost intact
on millions of acres that are now fire swept.
THE FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
The Forest Service administers the Chugach National Forest of
7,533 square miles on the southern coast of the main body of the Terri-
tory. Three-fourths of the forest has a light fire risk due to the humid
climate. In the remaining portion, in a zone of fairly high risk, the
Forest Service has maintained an efficient system of fire protection
for the past 25 years.
BIOLOGICAL SURVEY AND ALASKA GAME COMMISSION
The Department of Agriculture, acting through the Biological
Survey, has charge of the protection of game animals, land fur bear-
ers, migratory waterfowl, and upland game birds. Its field of ac-
tivity does not include the protection from fire of the cover on which
this wildlife is dependent. In addition to regulatory work the Bio-
logical Survey makes scientific studies of wildlife and wildlife
conditions, establishes game animals on empty ranges, carries on
predatory animal control projects, and makes extensive scientific in-
vestigations of the reindeer industry and of fur ranching.
The local regulatory agency of the Biological Survey is the Alaska
Game Commission, which was established in 1925. This Commission,
the membership of which is appointed by the Secretary of Agricul-
ture, consists of five men, one from each of the four judicial divisions
of the Territory, and an executive officer who is the representative
of the Biological Survey in Alaska. The Commission commonly
meets once yearly. It proposes for action by the Biological Survey
and the Secretary of Agriculture such regulations as seem advisable
with respect to hunting seasons, bag limits, establishment of game
and fur districts, and designation of lands as refuges. It formulates
general plans for regulatory work to be carried out under the direct
supervision of the executive secretary, and makes recommendations
for action by the Biological Survey on such matters as predatory-
animal control, the restocking of game lands, the introduction of new
game species, and the study of wildlife problems.
The Territorial government has no responsibilities in connection
with the protection of Alaska wildlife.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION
Adequate management of the cover resources of Alaska lands will
require the establishment and application of a program of varied and
related activities. The following are the most important considera-
tions : Protection from fire must be given the vegetative cover ; better
protection against predators must be extended to the wildlife re-
sources and domestic range animals; specific areas should be dedi-
ALASKA 595
cated to the specific types of use for which they are best fitted ; suit-
able restrictions should be placed on the use of resources on lands
which are not to be patented ; scientific studies are needed of problems
affecting the resources and their dependent industries.
Fortunately the demands of the existing situation in Alaska can
be met quite satisfactorily by the comparatively simple measures
hereinafter proposed.
SURVEY OF THE PLANT COVER
A comprehensive study of the cover resources of the lands of the
open public domain is needed as a basis for providing the various
resources and their dependent activities with integrated systematic
plans for protection and management.
In connection with this study the vegetative-cover types of the
open public domain should be mapped on broad lines. The cover
conditions and especially the extent and degree of fire damage on
many large areas are little known. The mapping project should
cover first those localities of primary interest in connection with the
establishment of plans for a fire-protection system, controlled graz-
ing, predatory animal control, and game management. The field
data can be obtained most quickly and at least expense by means of
aerial photographic surveys.
An early start on the protection and land-planning program is so
desirable that in case delay is encountered in the general mapping
project, the program should be initiated on the basis of cover data
now available, or readily obtainable by the usual reconnaissance
methods.
The suggested aerial photographic survey of vegetative cover might
well be combined with a similar survey of topography for the use
of other branches of the Government and particularly the United
States Geological Survey. Through such an arrangement the cost
of the work to the agency especially concerned with the vegetative
cover should not exceed $50,000 per year for a period of 5 years.
FIRE PROTECTION ON THE OPEN PUBLIC DOMAIN
The establishment of a fire-protection organization on the open
public domain is an essential first step in any attempt to bring the
public-land resources under a reasonable degree of control. The
executive head of the project should be sympathetic with its objectives
and experienced in the broad aspects of administrative work in fire
protection. The organization should be represented in each of the
larger community centers throughout the regions of high fire risk,
but the initial forces of each headquarters might well be limited to
the key men around whom a larger field force is later to be built,
and one or two assistants. Most of these men should be yearlong
employees. The key men should be of proven ability in establishing
fire-protection systems, including ability to promote favorable public
sentiment, and effect cooperative agreements with public and private
agencies for the prevention and suppression of fires.
Educational efforts directed toward fire prevention would consti-
tute one of the major functions of the organization and be especially
596 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
important during the first few years. With a population in the fire-
susceptible regions of not to exceed 32,000 or the equivalent of one
person to 16 square miles, an opportunity exists for highly effective
educational work through frequent personal contact. Close associa-
tion should be maintained with miners, mining companies, transpor-
tation agencies such as air transport, river steamer, and stage lines,
sportsmen's organizations, and, in fact, all classes of workers and
agencies having activities in the open country.
Cooperation in the prevention, reporting, and suppression of fires
should be arranged among the many Federal and Territorial agencies
having widespread representation throughout the country, such as
the Alaska Road Commission, Alaska Game Commission, Alaska
Railroad, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. The cooperating public
agencies will, as a whole, be able to carry a large part of the burden
of fire-protection work if given competent direction and some finan-
cial assistance by the fire organization.
During the initial stages of the fire-protection administration the
keymen should make a detailed study of the fire conditions of their
respective districts. The fire organization should not be materially
expanded or incur the expenditure of large sums for detection and
suppression equipment until these studies and the experience of the
keymen have indicated the size and character of the fire problem
and how it can best be met. On the basis that the keymen and
their principal assistants would be employed throughout the year,
the cost of the work during the first 3 or 4 years should not exceed
$60,000 per year.
REINDEER GRAZING
A study should be made of the range needs of the reindeer indus-
try, following which the industry should be allotted a definite por-
tion of the open public domain. Reindeer grazing should be re-
stricted to this allotment. This action will effect a segregation of
reindeer and caribou and thus protect the purity of the strain as
well as the food supply of both classes of animals. Both reindeer
and caribou are highly important in the economy of Alaska, and
each is entitled to an equitable share of the range lands of the Ter-
ritory. The reindeer allotment area should be based on the location
and size of the present industry, the possibilities for expansion, and
the need for a combination of range features for each herd. Inter-
ested public agencies have considered this problem and tentatively
selected an area embracing approximately 100,000 square miles in
the form of a wide strip along the coasts of Bering Sea and the
Arctic Ocean.
Within the reindeer area, plans for range management should be
perfected which will provide for the proper use and protection of
the range resources, including the recovery of those lands which have
already suffered from overgrazing. Definite grazing areas should
be allotted each herd.
This activity will require a small permanent supervisory force
composed of men of training and experience in grazing-land ad-
ministration. The cost will be approximately $50,000 per year.
ALASKA 597
DETERMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL AREAS
The localities of highest agricultural value on the open public
domain should be determined with proper weight being given to all
of the factors involved, including accessibility and available markets.
While homestead entry should not be restricted to these localities,
their advantages should be pointed out to prospective farmers.
Action along the above lines should tend to concentrate agricultural
settlement on the better areas, with resultant economic and social
benefits. Such classification work will need the cooperation of the
agricultural division of the Alaska University at Fairbanks.
The sum of $25,000 per year for a period of 5 years should be
made available for this project.
PREDATORY ANIMAL CONTROL
A permanent program of intensive predatory animal control, with
special reference to coyotes and wolves, should be put into effect at
once. The distribution of coyotes throughout most of the Territory,
including the isolated breeding grounds of waterfowl on the shores
of the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean, will necessitate widespread
control work. A permanent force of well-trained men should be
built up for this work as rapidly as possible. An allotment of not
less than $50,000 per year will be needed to start the activity.
GAME-MANAGEMENT AREAS
For the purpose of having wildlife contribute more fully to the
economy of the Territory, lands of outstanding value for the more
desirable species of game animals should be officially designated as
"managed hunting grounds" or "game-management areas", and a
game-management plan should be provided for each of such areas.
The plan should afford special and intensive treatment to the area
and its game with the object in view of maintaining a numerous
game population and improving the hunting conditions. The work
will call for close cooperation between the Federal agency having
supervision of the cover resources of the open public domain or other
publicly owned lands involved, and the Alaska Game Commission.
Satisfactory game management will involve an expenditure of not
less than $75,000 per year.
WILDLIFE REFUGES
An intensive study should be made of the possible need for addi-
tional wildlife refuges and for adjusting the boundaries of existing
refuges. It may be found that the best results can be obtained by
the use of numerous relatively small refuges rather than a few large
ones, or by supplementing the existing large refuges with additional
small ones. A study of the refuge situation with respect to the big
brown and grizzly bears is especially desirable at this time.
598 THE WESTERN RANGE APPENDIX
EXPERIMENT STATION
There are many problems connected with the growth, protection,
and utilization of the forest and range resources which require the
intensive, systematic, and persistent study which can be best pro-
vided by an experiment station. A forest and range experiment
station similar to those maintained by the Department of Agriculture
in continental United States should be established in Alaska. The
headquarters station should doubtless be located at Juneau in south-
eastern Alaska and branches would be needed in interior Alaska,
the tundra region of the northwest coast, and the grassland areas of
the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island.
The operation of the station and its branches will involve expendi-
tures totaling $100,000 per year. In addition, buildings and other
station improvements will cost $25,000 yearly for the first 5 years.
INTEGRATED ADMINISTRATION
The administration of the cover resources of the open public
domain of Alaska should be based on an integrated program of Fed-
eral activity, under which fire protection and the conditions or
restrictions to be set up to assure proper use, will be brought into
harmony with the varying requirements of wildlife, reindeer, cattle,
and sheep, and other interests which are dependent on the cover for
existence. A satisfactory program will be difficult to establish and
carry out under the present system of Federal administration, which
places responsibility for fire protection and use of the cover in the De-
partment of the Interior while giving the Department of Agriculture
the responsibility for studying the cover requirements and promoting
the welfare of the above-mentioned interests. Different viewpoints
of the two Departments with respect to the things necessary or desir-
able to be done or the degree of stress to be given each of several
activities would doubtless result frequently in no action being taken,
or at least in delays. For example, studies by the Biological Survey,
Department of Agriculture, of the best methods to employ in rein-
deer grazing to avoid or check depletion of the range vegetation can
be of little value if the facts determined are not used as a basis for
restrictions in the use of the range by herd owners.
A more satisfactory accomplishment would be possible if the
administration of the forest, tundra, and grass resources of the open
public domain were transferred to the Department of Agriculture.
This Department has a greater official interest in the protection and
proper management of resources of this type than any other Federal
agency and the problems involved in Alaska are of the same general
character as those which receive the attention of the organization
and personnel of this Department throughout the United States.
RANGE TYPES
The 10 range types listed in chapter II, into which, for simplifica-
tion of treatment, the enormously complex vegetation of the western
range country has been broken down, are separable further into dis-
tinct subtypes. These types and subtypes, listed below, are based
largely on the treatment of Shantz and Zon as shown in the Atlas of
American Agriculture, Part I, the Physical Basis of Agriculture:
Section E, Natural Vegetation (U. S. Dept. Agr. 1924). This has
been modified by subsequent observations of the Forest Service and
of other organizations and individuals who have made special studies
of the subject.
TALL GRASS
"Big bluestem" sod.
Porcupine grass — slender wheatgrass.
"Little bluestem" bunchgrass.
SHORT GRASS
Blue grama. Red three-awn ("wiregrass").
Blue grama — buffalo grass. Blue grama — needle-and-thread
Bluestem ("western wheatgrass"). ("western needlegrass").
Galleta.
PACIFIC BUNCHGRASS
Bluebunch wheatgrass sod.
California needlegrass — Sandberg bluegrass.
Bluebunch wheatgrass bunchgrass.
SEMIDESERT GRASS
Mesquite grass (desert grassland).
Mesquite and desert-grass (desert savanna).
SAGEBRUSH-GRASS
Sagebrush associated with numerous grasses.
SOUTHERN DESERT SHRUB
Creosotebush. Saltbush.
Yucca-cactus. Mesquite.
SALT-DESERT SHRUB
Black sagebrush. Little rabbitbrush.
Shadscale. Winterfat.
Hop-sage. Bud sagebrush ("budsage").
Gray molly ("white sage"). Greasewood.
PINON-JUNIPER
Coniferous woodland.
WOODLAND-CHAPARRAL
Oak-grass. Dense woodland.
Chaparral. Chamise.
OPEN FORESTS
Ponderosa pine — Douglas fir. Mountain brush.
Aspen-fir. Spruce-fir (Rockies and Intermoun-
Alpine grassland. tain).
Ponderosa pine — sugar pine.
599
600 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
RANGE SPECIES REFERRED TO IN THE REPORT
The following list gives the common names of range species
referred to in previous pages together with the appropriate botanical
name. Common names that are not accepted, but are locally famil-
iar, are indicated by quotation marks.
Acacia Acacia sp.
Agave Agave sp.
Alfalfa Medicago sativa.
Alkali sacaton Sporobolus airoides.
Alpine bluegrass Poa alpina.
Alpine timothy Phleum alpinum.
American sloughgrass Beckmannia syzigachne,
Anemone Anemone sp.
Aster, wreath Aster multiflorus.
Balsamroot __ Balsamorhiza sp.
Beardgrass ("bropmsedge") Andropogon sp.
Beardgrass, prairie A. scoparius.
"Beggartick" (western stickseed) Lappula occidentals.
Big sagebrush Artemisia tridentata.
Bitterbrush Purshia tridentata.
Bitter rubberweed ("bitterweed") Actinea odorata.
Black grama Bouteloua eriopoda.
Black medic Medicago lupulina.
Black sagebrush Artemisia nova.
Bluebells L ^ Mertensia sp.
"Bluebunch fescue" (Idaho f.) Festuca idahoensis.
Bluebunch wheatgrass Agropyron spicatum.
Blue grama Bouteloua gracilis.
Bluegrass Poa sp.
Bluegrass, alpine ^ P. alpina.
Bluegrass, Kentucky - _ _ P. pratensis.
Bluegrass, Sandberg P. secunda.
Bluejoint turkeyfoot ("big bluestem") Andropogon furcatus.
Bluestem ("western wheatgrass") .... Agropyron smithii.
"Bluestem, big" (bluejpint turkeyfoot) Andropogon furcatus.
"Bluestem, little" (prairie beardgrass) Andropogon scoparius.
Brome (bromegrass) Bromus sp.
Brome, mountain B. carinatus.
Brome, smooth B. inermis.
Broom weed ____, Amphiachyris dracunculoides.
"Broomsedge" (beardgrass) Andropogon sp.
Bud sagebrush ("bud sage") Artemisia spinescens.
Buffalo grass Buchloe dactyloides.
Bur-clover, California Medicago hispida.
Burrograss Scleropogon breyif olius.
Burroweed Aplopappus fruticosus.
"Burro weed" (jimmy weed) A. heterophyllus.
"Burroweed" (white bur-sage) Franseria dumosa.
Bush morning-glory Ipomoea leptophylla.
Butterfly weed ("pleurisy-root") Asclepias tuberosa.
California bur-clover Medicago hispida.
California needlegrass Stipa pulchra.
California oatgrass Danthpnia calif ornica.
Cane, small ("switch c.") Arundinaria tecta.
Cane, southern ("giant c.") A. gigantea.
Carolina clover Trif olium carplinianum .
Catclaw Acacia greggii.
Ceanothus Ceanothus sp.
Centuryplant Agave americana.
Chamise Adenostoma fasciculatu
"Cheatgrass" (downy chess) Bromus tectorum.
Chess, downy Do.
Chess, foxtail B. rubens.
RANGE TYPES AND SPECIES 601
Cliffrose Cowania stansburiana.
Clover Trifolium sp.
Clover, Carolina T. carolinianum.
Clover, crimson T. incarnatum.
Clover, white T. repens.
"Coff eeberry" (jojoba) Simmondsia calif ornica.
Common lespedeza Lespedeza striata.
Creosotebush Covillea tridentata.
Crested wheatgrass Agropyron cristatum.
Crimson clover Trifolium incarnatum.
"Crowfoot grama" (Rothrock g.) Bouteloua rothrpckii.
Curly-mesquite Hilaria belangeri.
Deathcamas Zygadenus sp.
Downy chess (' 'cheatgrass' ') Bromus tectorum.
Dropseed, pine Blepharoneuron tricholepis.
Dropseed, sand Sporobolus cryptandrus.
Drymaria Drymaria holosteoides.
Elk sedge (' 'elkgrass") Carex geyeri.
False-hellebore Veratrum sp.
Fanscale saltbush Atriplex polycarpa.
Fescue, Idaho ("bluebunch f.") Festuca idahoensis.
Fescue, sheep F. ovina.
Fescue, sixweeks F. octoflora.
Fireweed Chamaenerion angustif olium.
"Fleabane" (wild-daisy) Erigeron sp.
Fluff grass Triodia pulchella.
Foxtail chess Bromus rubens.
"Gallberry" (Inkberry) Ilex glabra.
Galleta Hilaria jamesii.
Geranium Geranium sp.
"Giant cane" (southern cane) Arundinaria gigantea.
Giant wild-rye Elymus condensatus.
Goldenrod Solidago sp.
Grama Bouteloua sp.
Grama, black B. eriopoda.
Grama, blue B. gracilis.
Grama, Rothrock ("crowfoot g.") B. rothrockii.
Grama, side-oats B. curtipendula.
Gray molly Kochia vestita.
Greasewood Sarcpbatus yermiculatus.
Hackberry Celtis sp.
Hawksbeard Crepis sp.
Hairgrass, tufted Deschampsia caespitosa.
Highland live oak Quercus wislizenii.
Hop-sage Grayia sp.
Horsebrush Tetradymia sp.
Idaho fescue ("bluebunch fescue") Festuca idahoensis.
Indian grass Sorghastrum nutans.
Indian ricegrass Oryzopsis hymenoides.
Inkberry ("gallberry") Ilex glabra.
Jimmy weed ( ' ' burro weed' ') Aplopappus heterophyllus.
Jojoba ("coffeeberry") Simmondsia calif ornica.
Junegrass Koeleria cristata.
Kentucky bluegrass Poa pratensis.
Knotweed Polygonum sp.
"Klamath weed" (St. Johns wort) Hypericum perforatum.
Larkspur (also low 1. or tall 1.) Delphinium sp.
Leadplant ("shoestrings") Amorpha canescens.
Lespedeza, common Lespedeza striata.
"Little bluestem" (prairie beardgrass) Andropogon scoparius.
Little rabbitbrush Chrysothamnus stenophyllus.
Loco Astragalus sp.
Lovegrass Eragrostis sp.
Low larkspur Delphinium sp.
Lupine Lupinus sp.
Maidencane ("Faille firme grass") Panicum hemitomon.
Manzanita Arctostaphylos sp.
602 THE WESTERN RANGE — APPENDIX
Medic, black Medicago lupulina.
Melic; oniongrass Melica sp.
Mesquite Prosopis sp.
Milkvetch Astragalus sp.
Mimosa Mimosa sp.
Molly, gray Kochia vestita.
Morning-glory, bush Ipomoea leptophylla.
Mountain brome Bromus carinatus.
Mountain-dandelion Agoseris sp.
Mountain-mahogany Cercocarpus sp.
Muhly, ring Muhlenbergia torreyi.
Needle-and-thread ("western needlegrass") Stipa comata.
Needlegrass Stipa sp.
Needlegrass, California S. pulchra.
Needlegrass, western S. occidentalis.
"Needlegrass, western" (needle-and-thread) S. comata.
Oatgrass, California Danthonia calif ornica.
Oat, slender Avena barbata.
Ocotillo Fouquieria splendens.
Oniongrass; melic Melica sp.
"Faille firme grass" (maidencane) Panicum hemitomon.
Paloverde Cercidium sp.
Panicgrass Panicum sp.
"Panicgrass, tall" (switchgrass) P. virgatum.
Peavine Lathyrus sp.
Pennyroyal, rough Hedeoma hispida.
Phlox Phlox sp.
Pickleweed Allenrolfea occidentalis.
Pine dropseed Blepharoneuron tricholepis.
Pinegrass Calamagrostis rubescens.
"Plains plantain" (woolly Indianwheat) Plantago purshii.
' ' Pleurisy-root' ' (butterfly weed) Asclepias tuberosa.
Poison-oak Toxicodendron sp.
Pacific poison-oak T. diversilobum.
Poppies (Used inclusively for several re-
lated genera.)
California-poppy Eschscholtzia sp.
Poppy Papaver sp.
Desertpoppy Arctomecon sp.
Matilija-poppy Romneya sp.
Treepoppy Dendromecon sp.
Porcupine grass Stipa spartea.
Prairie beardgrass ("little bluestem") Andropogon scoparius.
Prairie sandgrass Calampvilf a longif olia.
Pricklypear Opuntia sp. (flat-jointed spp.)-
Rabbitbrush Chrysothamnus sp.
Rabbitbrush, little C. stenophyllus.
Red three-awn ("wiregrass") Aristida longiseta.
Redtop Agrostis sp.
Ricegrass, Indian Oryzopsis hymenoides.
Ring muhly Muhlenbergia torreyi.
Ripgut grass Bromus rigidus.
Rothrock grama ("crowfoot grama") Bouteloua rothrockii.
Rough pennyroyal Hedeoma hispida.
Russian-thistle Salsola pestifer.
Sacaton Sporobolus wrightii.
Sacaton, alkali S. airoides.
Sagebrush Artemisia sp.
Sagebrush, big A. tridentata.
Sagebrush, black A. nova.
Sagebrush, bud ("bud sage") A. spinescens.
Sagebrush, sand A. filifolia.
Sideseed grasses Paspalum spp.
Saltbush Atriplex sp.
Saltbush, fanscale A. pplycarpa.
Saltgrass Distichlis sp.
RANGE TYPES AND SPECIES 603
Sandberg bluegrass Poa secunda.
Sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptandrus.
Sandgrass, prairie Calampyilfa longif olia.
Sand sagebrush Artemisia filifolia.
Seepweed Dondia sp.
Shadscale Atriplex conf ertif olia.
Sheep fescue Festuca ovina.
"Shoestrings" (leadplant) Amorpha canescens.
Side-oats grama Bouteloua curtipendula.
Sixweeks fescue Festuca octoflora.
Skunkbush Rhus trilobata.
Sleepy grass Stipa robusta.
Slender oat Avena barbata.
Slender wheatgrass Agropyron pauciflorum.
Sloughgrass, American Beckmannia syzigachne.
Small cane ("switch cane") Arundinaria tecta.
Snakeweed Gutierrezia sarothrae.
Sneezeweed Helenium hoopesii.
Snowberry Symphoricarpos sp.
Snowbrush Ceanothus velutinus.
Soaptree Yucca elata.
"Soapweed" (yucca) Yucca sp.
"Spanish-bayonet" (yucca) Dp.
Southern cane ("giant cane") Arundinaria gigantea.
Squirreltail Sitanion hystrix.
St. Johnswort ("Klamath weed") Hypericum perforatum.
Sunflower Helianthus sp.
"Switch cane" (small cane) Arundinaria tecta.
Switchgrass ("tall prairie grass"; "tall panic- Panicum virgatum.
grass").
Tall larkspur Delphinium sp.
Tall panicgrass (or t. prairie grass) Panicum virgatum.
Tarbush Flourensia cernua.
Three-awn ("wiregrass") Aristida sp.
Three-awn, red A. longiseta.
Timothy, alpine Phleum alpinum.
Timothy Phleum pratense.
Tobosa Hilaria mutica.
Tufted hairgrass Deschampsia caespitosa.
Turkeyfoot, bluejoint Andropogon furcatus.
Vetch Vicia sp.
Waterhemlock Cicuta sp.
Western needlegrass Stipa occidentalis.
"Western needlegrass" (needle-and-thread) _ _ S. comata.
Western stickseed ("beggartick") Lappula occidentalis.
"Western wheatgrass" (bluestem) Agropyron smithii.
Western yarrow Achillea lanulosa.
Wheatgrass Agropyron sp.
Wheatgrass, bluebunch A. spicatum.
Wheatgrass, crested A. cristatum.
Wheatgrass, slender A. pauciflorum.
"Wheatgrass, western" (bluestem) A. smithii.
White bur-sage ("burroweed") Franseria dumosa.
" W hite sage" (winterfat) Eurotia lanata.
White clover Trif olium repens.
Wild-daisy ("fleabane") Erigeron sp.
Wild-rye Elymus sp.
Wild-rye, giant E. condensatus.
Winterfat ("white-sage") Eurotia lanata.
"Wiregrass" (three-awn) Aristida sp.
Woolly Indianwheat ("plains plantain") Plantago purshii.
Wreath aster Aster multiflorus.
Yarrow, western Achillea lanulosa.
Yucca ("Spanish-bayonet"; "soapweed") Yucca sp.
INDEX
Absorption, effect of depletion on, 320.
chart, 321.
Accelerated erosion and run-off. See Ero-
sion ; Run-off.
Ackno\yledgments, x.
Acquisition —
areas in range types (table), 438.
costs, summarized, 65.
private range of high public value, 440.
legislation, 540.
program, summarized, 57-59.
public —
legislation required, summary, 62
solution private ownership problems,
429-432.
range country, 213-215.
map, 214.
shifts to public, net area, 445-447.
State, recommendations, 546.
submarginal private range, legislation,
539.
watershed areas, program (table), 441.
Administration of range lands. See Range,
administration.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration —
acknowledgment, x.
effect of Supreme Court decision, 494.
logical need for functions, 543.
Agricultural adjustment program, relation
to range use, 423.
Agricultural communities, losses from de-
pleted range, 410.
summarized. 28.
Agricultural Economics, Bureau of, acknowl-
edgement, x.
Agricultural experiment stations, acknowl-
edgement, x.
Agriculture —
Alaska, 587.
balanced, greater security in, 415-418.
Department of. See Department of Agri-
culture.
range management, function of, 469.
southern, relation to grazing, 567.
western (see also Crop-farming) —
areas on range and farms (chart), 469.
dependent population, 391-393.
diverse patterns of, 379-386.
effects of range depletion, 400-411.
effects of maladjustments in land use,
394-397.
integration with public range, program,
457-459.
integration with range use, summar-
ized, 16-19.
interrelationship of cropland and range,
379-386.
irrigated lands, area, and value of im-
provements (table), 330.
magnitude, 378.
ranch size trends (chart), 398.
ranch size trends (table). 399.
ranges, tenure, 385-386.
regional characteristics, 386-391.
relation to mid-western and southern,
o9o.
social and economic function of the
range in, 377-418.
Alaska (map), 583.
climate, 583.
cover types, estimated areas, 587.
Federal administrative agencies, 593.
Alaska — Continued.
land and cover resources, social and eco-
nomic values, 585-587.
livestock industry, 589.
management of cover resources, program,
594-598.
reindeer industry, 588.
wildlife, 589.
Alaska Game Commission, 594.
Alienated land, national forest range, man-
agement, 263.
Allotment system, national forest range,
261.
Alternate grazing system, 504.
American National Livestock Association,
resolutions re overgrazed public domain,
236.
Anderson, C. A., acknowledgment, x.
Animal husbandry —
private range, 492.
required in livestock enterprises, 43.
research, 530.
Animal unit(s) —
defined, 3, 153.
in range country, trends (chart), 153.
on range and other feed, 154—161.
Antelope —
national forests —
increase (chart), 358.
numbers and trend (table), 360.
prong-horned, depletion, 349.
Area(s), range —
available vs. total, by ownerships (table),
decrease in, 83.
depletion —
by classes (charts), 4, 181.
by classes (map), 110.
good and poor condition, ownerships
(chart), 29.
range types (chart), 5.
trends (chart), 8.
distribution —
ownerships (chart), 6.
ownerships (table), 7.
types (charts), 5, 83.
types (table), 6.
eroding and silting (map), 331.
erosion, degree of (map), 305.
extent (map), 2.
forest types (map), 101.
grass types (map), 85.
grazing capacity —
by ownerships (chart), 46.
former and present, by types (table),
509.
stocking, present and potential (table),
509.
livestock, population (chart), 153.
ownerships (table), 82.
private —
changes in use, program, 446.
distribution by types (table), 438.
shift to public ownership (table), 438.
public, available vs. total (table), 51.
railroad grants (map), 228.
table, 227.
shrub types (map), 95.
wildlife refuges (table), 356.
wildlife requirements, program (table),
357.
Arroyo cutting. See Erosion, trench.
Artificial reseeding. Sec Revegetation, arti-
ficial.
605
606
THE WESTERN RANGE
Bailey, R. W., author, 303.
Baiicker, John, acknowledgment, x.
Bear —
black, Alaska, 591.
black and brown, national forests (chart),
oo8.
table, 360.
brown and grizzly, Alaska. 590.
grizzly, national forests (chart). 358.
table, 360.
Beckwith, Frances L., acknowledgment, x.
Bed-grounds, excessive use by sheep, 175.
Bermuda grass, southern range, introduced,
570.
Big game. See Game ; Wildlife.
Biological Survey, Bureau of —
acknowledgment, x.
activities in wildlife preservation, 26.
in Alaska, 594.
rodent control on national forests, 262.
Birkmaier, E. E.. author, 81.
"Black blizzards" spread destruction, 336.
Bluff. Utah, ruined by range destruction,
332.
Boise River —
annual flow vs. actual requirements
(chart), 334.
water shortage (chart), 334.
Bombard, Miriam L., acknowledgment, x.
Bottomland-hardwood forest ranges, South-
ern States, area, 568.
Botulism, cause of waterfowl losses, 346.
Boundaries —
intermingled, national forest and graz-
ing districts, administration, 462.
national forest, simplification of changes,
legislation required, 541.
Breeding, effect of depletion on, 405.
Brush burning —
cause of erosion. 179-180.
effect on timber reproduction, 180.
Buffalo, depletion, 3*8.
Bunchgrass cover, as watershed protector
(chart), 319.
Bureau of Fisheries, 27.
Calf crop —
decrease from overstocking, 166-167.
managed and unmanaged range (chart),
406.
California, floods —
caused by depletion, 307.
toll, 335.
California region, crop and range agricul-
ture, description, 390.
Campbell, R. S., author, 135, 523.
Campbell. Theo., acknowledgment, x.
Capital investment —
five-year program costs, 548-555.
Brazing-district lands, 64. 465, 550.
Indian lands, 64, 476, 552.
national-forest ransre. 63, 464, 549.
private lands, 64, 553.
State and county lands, 64, 480, 553.
livestock industry —
distribution between herds, land. etc.
(table), 194.
relation to profits and depletion, 193-
196.
possible decrease, 428.
western agriculture (1930), 378.
Caribou, Alaska, 590.
Carpet grass, southern range, introduced,
570.
Carrying costs —
reduction difficult, 427-428.
relation to profits and depletion, 199-200.
Cattle (see also Livestock) —
grazing operation, costs (table), 198.
Cattle industry. See Livestock industry.
Census, Bureau of, acknowledgment, x.
Channelling. See Erosion, trench.
Chapline, W. R., author, 151, 483, 523.
Clapp, Earle H., author, 1.
Climate (see also Precipitation) —
Alaska, 583.
cause of floods and erosion, 314.
effect on cattle boom, 123.
effects on range, summarized, 15-16.
fluctuations in, 135-142.
effects on range vegetation, 142-148.
guide in range use, 149-150.
not sole cause of depletion, 161.
relation to production costs, 199.
Closure of grazing areas, watershed protec-
tion, 516.
Colorado floods, damage, 307.
Colorado Plateau, erosion in, 311.
Colorado range lands, ownership pattern
(map), 239.
Colorado River system, economic and social
importance, 333.
Committee on Conservation and Administra-
tion of Public Domain, report, 237.
"Common use", dangers of, 178.
Communities —
dependent on range agriculture, 391-393.
effects of depletion, 28, 410.
welfare facilitated by national forest
range management, 276.
Connaughton, C. A., author, 303, 501.
Conservation —
as function of Agriculture and Interior
Depts. (chart), 473.
exceptional on range, 249-300.
summary, 30-35.
factors favoring, 300.
Indian range, program, 474.
national forest range, 249-278.
summarized, 33-35.
private range, 294-300.
wildlife, progress and shortcomings, 350-
361.
Consolidation, administrative units —
by exchange, legislation, 540.
by transfer, legislation, 538.
Continuous moderate grazing system, 503.
Cost(s) —
artificial revegetation program, by owner-
ships (table), 506.
current, national-forest range administra-
tion, 277.
fencing program, ownerships (table), 512.
five-year program —
grtizing-district lands, 64, 464, 550.
Indian lands, 64, 476, 551.
national forest range, 63. 463, 549.
private range, 64, 494, 553.
research and extension, 554.
State and county range, 64, 480, 552.
summary, 63-66, 548-555.
owned vs. leased range, 401.
range surveys and management plans, by
ownership (table), 514.
water development program, by owner-
ships (table), 512.
Costs and returns per acre, administrative
program, grazing-district lands, and na-
tional-forest range (table), 466.
Costello, D. F., author, 71, 81.
Cover types, Alaska, estimated areas, 587.
Crafts, E. C., author, 185.
Credit —
basic needs, summary, 50.
limitations of public assistance, 428.
program, 496, 543.
specific problems, 210.
Credit facilities —
banks and loan associations, viewpoint,
203-205.
relation to profits and depletion, 201-205.
Cronemiller, F. P., author, 249, 451.
Crop agriculture. See Agriculture, western ;
Crop farming.
Crop and range agriculture. See Agricul-
ture, western.
Crop-farming (see also Agriculture, wes-
tern)—
combinations with livestock production,
379-386.
development in range territory, 378.
products, 380-383.
INDEX
607
Cropland —
products, 382-383.
retired from crop use, disposal, legisla-
tion, 539.
tenure and control, types, 385-386.
Crops, western agriculture, value (1930),
378.
Dacy, G. H., acknowledgment, x.
Dahl, J., acknowledgment, x.
Dayton, W. A., acknowledgment, x.
Deer —
Alaska, 591.
national forests —
increase (chart), 358.
numbers and trend (table), 360.
overprotection, results, 351.
overstocking by, 349.
white-tailed, extinction, 348.
Deferred and rotational grazing —
practice on national forests, 260.
program, 503.
Demmon, E. L., acknowledgment, x.
DeNio, R. M., acknowledgment, x.
Dense-forest range type, 79.
Department of Agriculture —
concern with forest and range problems
(chart), 473.
fitness to administer range lands, 471-
473.
functions of, 470.
Department of the Interior —
concern with forest and range problems
(chart), 473.
functions of, 471.
in Alaska, 593.
Depletion (map), 110.
areas —
good and poor condition, ownerships
(charts), 30, 31.
restoration, job indicated (table), 41.
average, ownerships and types (table),
capital investments, relation to. 193-196.
cattle boom, relation to, 119-123.
causes —
brush burning, 179-180.
climate, partial, 135, 161, 181.
dry farms, abandoned (table), 244.
excessive stocking, 151-171.
"free use", 108.
financial handicaps, 193-211.
goat-raising, 126.
inadequate watering-places, 176.
lag in research, 185.
land policy, 213-248.
marketing difficulties, 205-208.
rule-of-thumb management, 173—184.
settlements, increase in, 127-129.
sheep grazing excesses, 125-127.
summarized, 9-16.
classes —
areas (charts), 4, 181.
range areas in good and poor condi-
tion (chart), 30.
credit facilities, relation to, 201-205.
defined, 83.
effects —
accelerated erosion and floods, 316-324.
breeding operations impaired, 405.
calf and lamb crops lowered. 405-406.
crops impaired, 400.
drought relief purchases of cattle and
sheep (table), 408.
forced sales brought about, 407-410.
geologic evidence of, 322.
livestock marketability impaired, 404.
population and community decline, 410.
production costs augmented and profits
cut, 197-201.
restoration costs increased, 414.
run-off and erosion increased (table),
317.
social and economic, summarized, 19—
30.
soil absorption lessoned (chart), 321.
soil fertility lost, 407.
Depletion — Continued,
effects — Continued.
supplemental feeds necessitated, 401-
402.
unbalanced seasonal use, 403.
wildlife numbers reduced, 342-346.
evidence of overstocking, 161—164.
grazing-district lands (see also Grazing-
district lands) —
by plant types (table), 285.
Indian range (see also Indian range
lands) —
in the Southwest, 280.
integrated agriculture necessitated by,
415-418.
key areas, effect on range agriculture,
403
national-forest range. See National-for-
est range,
ownerships (charts), 6, 113.
tables, 7, 114.
private range (see also Private range) —
Great Plains, 297.
Nebraska Sand Hills, 299.
range type groups (table), 439.
range types (table), 295.
west of Great Plains, 295.
problems and action required, summa-
rized, 37-38, 40.
range types, 84-108
average (charts), 5, 111.
average (table), 6.
by classes (chart), 112.
by classes (table), 109.
national forests (table), 250.
open-forest, by ownerships (table), 107.
1'acific-bunchgrass, by ownerships (ta-
pinon-juniper, by ownerships (table),
102.
sagebrush-grass, by ownerships (table),
96.
salt-desert shrub, by ownerships (ta-
ble), 100.
semidesert-grass, by ownerships (table),
93.
short-grass, by ownerships (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub, by ownerships
tall-grass,' by ownerships (table). 87.
woodland-chaparral, by ownerships (ta-
ble), 105.
State and county range. See State and
county range,
trends —
by area (chart), 8.
by ownerships (chart), 7.
by types (chart), 115.
bv tvpes and ownerships (tables), 115,
116.
universal nature of 3-8.
watersheds —
effects at different stages, 318.
threat to irrigation agriculture, 328.
Desert Land Act, 221.
Disposal of public lands. See Range lands,
disposal.
Distribution, range products, costs (table),
4.1 ^
Donations, land, to Government, legisla-
tion, 541.
Downy chess cover, as watershed protector
(chart), 319.
Drainage, effect on waterfowl, 346.
Dremolski, L. A., acknowledgment, x.
Drift fence. See Fencing.
Drought —
Bast vs. West (chart), 139.
effects —
density of vegetation decreased (chart),
146.
increased by depletion, 407-410.
national forest range management im-
peded, 265.
progressive, 142.
relation to effects of depletion, 149.
salt-desert shrub type depleted (table)..
608
THE WESTERN RANGE
Drought — Continued.
effects — continued,
soil eroded, 147-148.
vegetative stand reduced, 145.
factor in floods and erosion, 314.
factor in submarginal range, 412.
frequency, 138-141.
map, 140.
livestock numbers not adjusted to (chart),
148.
production costs, relation to, 199.
recurrence of dry years (chart), 141.
relief, purchase program (table), 408.
role in history of range use, 131.
Drought of 1934, effects, 135.
Dry-farming —
debacle. 394-396.
losses from, summarized, 19-22.
necessitates range restoration, 397.
on drought areas, 150.
Dry-farms —
abandonment and present condition, 241.
submarginal for private range use, 243-
"Dual use", dangers of, 178.
"Dude ranch", economic value, 367.
Dust storms —
destructive results, 337.
result of sheet-erosion, 313
Dyksterhius, E. J., acknowledgment, x.
Ecology, range, research program, 524-527.
Economic crop-livestock units —
development of, sound basis for, 487-491.
integrated agriculture, 415—418.
program, 457-459.
reconstruction, summary, 49.
Economics, range, research program, 529.
herds, Sun River and Yellowstone, deple-
tion of, 344.
national forests —
increase (chart), 358.
numbers and trend (table), 360.
overstocked, 349.
Enlarged Homestead Acts, 220.
Entomology, range, 530.
Eroding areas (map), 331.
Erosion (map), 305.
accelerated, definition, 308.
areas, by ownerships (chart), 23.
causes, 314-326.
"burns" on steep slopes, 180.
climate, 314.
slope, soil, and rainfall (table), 320.
soil conditions, 315.
topographical conditions. 315.
vegetational depletion, 23-24, 316-324.
control —
artificial, program, 516.
costs on sample areas (table), 464.
measures required, summary, 43-44.
research program, 528.
effects —
destructive to soil fertility. 327-328.
economic and social, 326-338.
examples, 310-312.
losses from, summarized, 22-25.
on a denuded watershed (table), 323.
silting into major streams (chart), 23.
gully, defined, 309.
sheet, defined, 309.
"shoestring", defined, 309.
trench, defined, 309.
wind —
defined, 310.
Nebraska Sand Hills, control of, 299.
Ewing, Carl, author, 81.
Excessive stocking (see also Overstocking),
151-171.
chart, 10.
Experiment station, forest and range, recom-
mended for Alaska, 598.
Extension —
appraisal of, 188.
lag in, 188.
program, 531.
costs, summarized, 65.
legislation, 542.
legislation, summary, 62.
public assistance, 429.
summary, 62.
F
Farm Credit Administration —
acknowledgment, x.
activities, effect on interest rates and
credit, 428.
loans on basis of conservative land use,
543.
ranch loans, policies, 204.
Farm-ranch acreage, trends in (chart), 398.
table, 399.
Federal Trade Commission, price and market
inquiry, 207.
Feed loans increased by submarginal crop-
ping, 396.
Feed, supplemental —
dependence on —
far-western States (chart), 157.
far-western States (table), 155.
irrigated county, Arizona (chart), 160.
New Mexico (chart), 158.
overstocking proved, 154-161.
Utah (chart), 159.
production, 382-383.
resources, in south, 568-571.
Fees, grazing permits, natioual'forest range,
257.
Fencing, drift, in livestock distribution,
511.
table, 512.
Financial handicaps, in private ownership,
13-15, 193-211.
Fire —
Alaska, 592-595.
cause of depletion and floods (table), 323.
Fish, reduction in numbers through deple-
tion, 346.
Fisheries, Bureau of, 27.
Floods —
causes, 306-338.
cost, 335, 338.
flash, 306.
increasing prevalence and severity, 306-
308.
losses from, summarized, 24.
Flyways, waterfowl (maps), 347.
Forage —
depletion from brush burning to "improve
grazing", 179-180.
See also Depletion.
production —
national forests, increased, 250.
relation to conservative stocking
(chart), 144.
replaced by expensive feeds. 401-402.
resources, southern ranges, 568-571.
types. See Range types.
unbal
anced seasonal use, 403.
Forage values, decline in (See also Deple-
tion) —
all types (chart), 115.
all types and ownerships (tables), 115,
116.
effect of ownership on, 107.
open-forest type, 105-108.
Pacific-bunchgrass type, 91.
pinion-juniper type, 101-103.
relation to watershed values, 320.
sagebrush-grass type, 95.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 98-100.
semidesert-grass type, 92-94.
short-grass type, 89.
southern desert-shrub type, 97.
tall-grass type, 87.
woodland-chaparral type, 103-105.
INDEX
609
Forest conservation, Theodore Roosevelt and
Gifford Pinchot, part in, 252.
Forest range, program, 522.
Forest regions, Alaska, 585-587.
Forest reserves, regulation authorized, 252.
Forest Service (see also National forests) —
administration, Alaska, 594.
beginnings of, 251-253.
range administration, part in, 467.
why in Department of Agriculture, 467.
Forsling, C. L., author, 249, 451.
"Free use" of range, effect on forage, 108.
Freight —
effect in marketing differential, 14, 206.
factor in submarginal range, 412-413.
table, 413.
Fur-bearing animals —
Alaska, 591.
national forests (table), 359.
Gadsden Purchase (map), 214.
Game (see also Wildlife) —
Alaska, 589.
management. See Management, wildlife.
national forest, range reserved for (foot-
note), 250.
population, national forests —
by States 1934 (table), 359.
trends (chart), 358.
trends (table), 360.
Gemmer, E. W., author, 567.
Geological evidence, importance of plant
cover to watershed, 322.
Gila National Forest deer herd, overstocking
through protection, 354.
Gila River Valley, floods, increasing damage,
308.
Goats (see also Mountain goats) —
early importation of, 126.
range suited for, 511.
Grants, land. See Land grants.
"Grass bonanza", 122.
Grass tufts, effect of drought on area of,
146.
Grass types (map), 85.
virgin range, 72-75.
present condition, 86-94.
Grasses, native, southern forest ranges, 568.
Grazing —
administration —
U. S. Dept. Agr., suited for, 52-53.
See also Range administration,
fees, payment to States, program, 459.
initiation on continuous basis, 270.
national forests, administrative costs, 63,
463, 549.
permits, national forests —
abandoned, 5 Western States (table),
273.
distribution by size classes and years
(table), 270.
fees, 257.
number and size trends, 267-274.
Southern States, economic trends, 574.
systems —
alternate, 504.
continual moderate, 261, 503.
deferred and rotation, 260, 503.
research program, 524-527.
values vs. watershed values, 337.
Grazing capacity (map), 508.
definition, 86.
national forests, 259.
increase (footnote), 250.
open-forest type (chart), 107.
original and present, by types (table), 509.
Pacific-bunchgrass type (chart), 91.
pinon-juniper type (chart), 102.
present and potential (chart), 69.
available range area, ownerships
(chart), 46.
present, by ownerships (table), 164.
Grazing capacity — Continued.
private range, by range type groups
(table), 439.
reductions in stocking required, 42.
relation to stocking and to range restora-
tion (table), 509.
research —
inadequate, 189.
program, 524-527.
sagebrush-grass type (chart), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (chart), 100.
semidesert-grass type (chart), 93.
short-grass type (chart), 88.
southern desert-shrub type (chart), 97.
tall-grass type (chart), 87.
vs. present use of range (chart), 10.
woodland-chaparral type (chart), 104.
Grazing Homestead Act, 221-225.
area entered under (table), 224.
area patented under (table), 225.
Grazing-district lands —
administration —
principles, summarized, 55.
problems and action required, sum-
marized, 39-40.
program, 452-467.
alienated lands, program, 460.
area (charts), 6, 46.
available for range use (tables), 7, 451.
by States (table), 235.
compared to pasture on farms (chart),
469.
total and available (table), 51.
boundary adjustments, program, 462.
costs, management —
fencing (table), 512.
five-year program, 550.
five-year program, 64, 551.
plans and surveys (table), 514.
water developments (table), 512.
danger of monopoly under grazing act,
289-292.
definition (footnote), 452.
depletion —
area (table), 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
good and poor condition (charts), 30,
31.
open-forest type (table), 107.
Pacific bunchgrass type (table), 91.
pinon-juniper type (table), 102.
sagebrush-grass type (table), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 100.
semidesert-grass type (table), 93.
short-grass type (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub type (table), 97.
tall-grass type (table), 87.
trends (chart), 7.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
woodland-chaparral type (table), 105.
grazable areas, 285.
grazing capacity —
overstocking (table), 164.
present and potential (chart), 46.
present and potential (table), 509.
integration with agriculture, program,
457-459.
jurisdiction, summary, 52-53.
legislation required, summary, 61.
machinery of administration, program,
464.
multiple use, program, 454.
overstocking percent (chart), 48.
range areas by types (table), 82.
range management, administrative pro-
gram, 456.
reseeding cost, 506.
restoration program, costs, summarized,
64.
silting major streams (chart), 24.
Taylor Grazing Act, effects, 286-294.
summarized, 32-33.
transfer of portions to national forests,
legislation, 538.
64946—36-
-40
610
THE WESTERN RANGE
Grazing-district lands — Continued.
grazing capacity — continued.
watershed conditions (table). 325.
watersheds eroding (chart), 23.
Grazing districts (see also Graziug-district
lands) —
established and proposed (map), 32.
private, need for, 547.
Grazing use, effect of brush burning, 179^
180.
Great Plains —
erosion in, 313.
range conservation, 29..
region west of, range conservation, 295.
H
Habitat, wildlife, changed by range deple-
tion, 342-346.
Hay production, 382-383.
Hayes, Doris, acknowledgment, x.
Heintzleman, B. F., author, 581.
Hendricks, B. A., author, 81.
Highlights of the report, vn.
History of range use 119-134.
Hog production, southern range, o71.
table. 568.
Homsteading —
effects of, summarized, 11-12.
final entries, law of 1862 (table), 218.
rise and fall (chart), 219.
Homsteading laws, 216-220.
enlarged homestead, 220.
grazing homestead, 221-225.
results (tables), 224-225.
study of, E. A. Sherman, 222.
Hoover, Herbert, Committee on Conservation
and Administration of Public Domain,
appointed, 237.
Horses —
produced, southern range, 572.
table, 508.
range suited for, 511.
Human wastage, caused by depletion, sum-
marized, 29.
Huiin, C. F., acknowledgment, x.
llurtt, L. C., author, 377.
Income, public land, return to States in
lieu of taxes, legislation, 540.
Indebtedness, livestock industry, per ranch
and head of stock (table), 203.
Indian lands, Wheeler-Howard Act, benefits
sought by, 283.
Indian range —
administration, 280-285.
capital investment and annual cost,
program (table), 476.
principles, summarized, 55.
program, 473-477.
area (chart), 46.
available (tables), 279, 451.
by types (tables). 82.
total and available (table), 7.
conservation measures, summary, 31-32.
costs, management, 531.
fencing (table). 512.
five-year program, 64, 552. .
plans and surveys (table), 514.
water development (table), 512.
depletion —
area (tables), 7, 51, 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
open-forest type (table), 107.
Pacific-bunchgrass type (table), 91.
pinon-Juniper type (table), 102.
sagebrush-grass type (table), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 100.
semidesert-grass type (table), 93.
short-grass type (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub type (table), 97.
tall-grass type (table), 87.
trends (chart), 7.
trends (tables). 115, 116.
woodland-chaparral type (table), 105.
grazing capacity —
overstocking (table), 164.
Indian range — Continued.
present and potential (chart), 46.
present and potential (table), 509.
land status, 282.
livestock grazed (table), 279.
overstocking percent (chart), 48.
present status, 234.
problems unsolved, 284.
reseeding costs, 506.
resources, 278-280.
restoration program, costs, summarized,
64.
silting major streams (chart), 24.
use by whites (table), 278.
watershed conditions (table), 325.
watersheds eroding (chart), 23
Indian reservations in range territory
(map), 32.
Integrated agriculture, program, 457-459
Interior, Department of. See Department
of the Interior.
Intermediate Credit Banks, loans on bas:.s
of conservative land use, 543.
Investments. See Capital investments.
Irrisated areas, western range territorv
(table), 330.
Ii-vigation —
improvements, value (table), 330.
water supply, threatened by watershed
depletion, 32S-335.
Johnson grass, southern forest range, in-
troduced. 570.
Jornada Experimental Range, rainfall an<?
forage crop (1930), 137-138.
Jurisdiction (see also Range adminislra-
tration) —
Federal range, in Department of Agricul-
ture, legislation, 292. 535.
Key to range restoration. 66.
State and Federal conflict under Taylor
Grazing Act, 292.
wildlife conservation, 519.
Kaibab deer herd, overstocking through
protection. 354.
Kelly. E. W., acknowledgment, x.
Key range areas —
administrative program, 460.
effects of depletion, 403.
restrictions in disposal recommended, 541.
Key forage plants, research inadequate, 190.
Key to remedial action ou range problems,
King", R., author, 249, 451.
Kinkaid Act. 220.
Kneipp. L. F.. author. 363.
Knoth, R. F . acknowledgment, x.
Koogler, W. G., author, 483.
Kotok, E. I., author, 193, 535.
Kutzleb, C. A., author, 81.
LaCrescenta flood area, erosion (table), 323.
Lamb, finishing operations, 382.
Land(s) (see also Area; Range lands) —
alienated, administrative program, 460.
dual use, dangers in, 178.
grants —
homestead laws, 21 5-225.
railroad (map), 228.
railroad, schools, etc., 226-229.
railroad, status (table), 227.
script, mineral laws, etc., 226.
Spanish and Mexican, settlement of,
215.
to States (table), 232.
policies —
Federal, 215-229.
railroad, 226-229.
reasons for present inadequacy, 236—
238.
State, 231-234.
JNDEX
611
Lands (s) — Continued,
policies — continued.
Texas, 230.
unsound, sunMnarizea, H— lo.
unsuitable, 213-248.
unsuitable, effect on ownership, 268-
245.
unsuitable, effect on range resource,
245.
script, 226.
tenure and control, crop and range agri-
culture, types, 385-386.
L1SAlnska, determination of agricultural
areas, 596.
crop lands retired, use for range, leg-
islation, 539.
in program for integrated agriculture,
457-459.
maladjustments, effects on range agri-
culture, 394-400.
multiple, program, 453—455.
problems and action required, sum-
marized, 38-39, 40.
programs, relation to range use, 4^o.
reconstruction of economic unit, sum-
situation on national forests, 249-251,
274-278.
values —
deflation required, 50.
specific problems, 211.
Laws, homestead. See Homesteading laws.
Legislation —
boundary adjustments, program, 462.
Federal program —
cooperation with States, 548.
land ownership, shifts in, 538-541.
private owners, assistance, 542-544.
public domain and grazing districts,
535-538.
summary, 61-62.
game conservation, State, 351.
Indian lands, Wheeler-Howard Act, 28d.
irrigation, Desert Land Act, 221.
land disposal, 216-229.
public laud, unsuitable policy, 213-248.
State —
problem, Federal cooperation, 548.
program, 544—548.
program, summary, 62.
Taylor Grazing Act, administration, 286 -
294
wildlife, present, self-defeating, 355.
wildlife, proposed, State and Federal, 544-
Legislation and costs, program, 535- -555.
Literature cited, 557.
Livestock —
animal unit, defined, 153.
associations, use of national forest range,
256
cattle numbers, 1870-86 (table), 119.
classes, range management program, 511.
declining numbers on range, 156.
distribution —
range management program, 511-513.
salting, 176.
farm values (table), 195
finishing operations, 382.
Indian lands, Indian and white owned
(table), 279.
losses, evidence of overstocking, 165-168.
management. See Management,
numbers —
decline in range counties, 160- -161.
within range territory (chart), 153.
on range and on other feed (chart), IS.
table, 155.
prices —
beef and lambs, 5-year average (table),
206.
beef and lambs, monthly variation
(table), 206.
beef steers and lambs, fluctuation,
annual (table), 206.
farm values (table), 195.
range cattle (table), 194.
Livestock — Con tinued.
range —
classifications, 381-382.
present numbers, 381.
prices (table), 194.
southern range, 567.
number and value (table), 568.
values vs. Federal range research (table),
188.
western, value, 1930. 378- 379.
Livestock industry and livestock produc-
tion-
Alaska, 589.
capital investment —
in cattle and sheep outfits, distribution
(table;, 194.
ratio to profits and depletion, 196--197.
carrying costs, 199-200.
reduction difficult, 427-428.
cattle and sheip, farm values (table) ,
195.
combinations with crop-farming, 379-386.
control, 495.
measures required, summary, 50.
credit facilities —
banks and loan associations, 203-205.
limitations of public assistance, 428.
program, 496.
relation to profits and depletion, 201-
205.
financial handicaps, 193-199.
history, 119-134.
indebtedness per ranch and head of stock
(table), 203.
land acquisition by cattle owners, 124.
marketing —
differential (chart), 14.
effects of range depletion, 404.
limitations of public assistance, 423.
methods, 205.
program, 496.
operating costs per unit head —
cattle (table), 198.
sheep (table), 198.
prices, range cattle (table), 194.
production costs, depletion a factor in,
200.
production program, 503-515.
production trends, 153.
products of farm and range, 380-^82.
profits, major control factors, 208-209.
ratio of ewe value to total investments
(table), 195.
resilience. 35-37.
stockman s status on national forest
range, 255-256.
Loblolly-shortleaf-hardwood forest ranges,
Southern States, 568.
Longleaf-slash pine forest ranges, Southern
States, 568.
Losses —
livestock, from overstocking, 165-166.
social and economic, from depletion, sum-
marized, 19-30.
Louisiana Purchase (map), 214.
M
McArdle, R. E., author, 71, 81.
Maladjustment, land use —
effects on —
agriculture, 394-400.
national forest range management, 266.
wildlife, 342-348.
losses from, summarized, 19-22.
problems and action required, summar-
ized. 40.
steps in correction, summarized, 49.
Management, livestock —
class of stock grazed, 511.
not adapted to range, 178.
distribution of stock, 511-518.
forage production requirement (chart),
144.
forced sales due to depletion, 407-410.
grazing permits abandoned (table), 273.
grazing systems, program, 503.
summary, 42-43.
612
THE WESTERN RANGE
Management, livestock — Continued.
national forest range, examples, 260-261.
private range —
examples, 294-300.
problems summarized, 38-39.
program, 492-495.
program, summary, 42-43.
research, program, 524-527.
rule-of-thumb practices, 173-184.
Management, range —
Alaska, program, 594-598.
Federal lands, program, 455-457.
function of agriculture, 469.
grazing capacity (map), 508.
grazing district lands, administration by
stockmen, 293.
lag in research impairs, 184.
national forests —
grazing privilege distribution ( table j,
267-274.
obstacles to development, 264-267.
planning, 263.
progress, 258-264.
summary, 33-35.
unsolved problems, 277.
plans and surveys —
cost, by ownership classes (table), 514.
program, 513.
requirements, summary, 43.
poisonous plant eradication, 506.
private —
conservation, 294-300.
opportunities. 492-495.
public participation, 494.
submarginal range land, 411-415.
problems and action required, summar-
ized, 37-38, 40.
problems neglected, examples of. 189-192.
program, 501-522.
program, costs, 548—555.
fencing (table), 512.
surveys and plans (table), 514.
water development (table). 512.
watershed protection. 515-518.
railroad-grant lands, 229.
recreational possibilities, 371-375.
requirements, summary, 47-49.
research, program, 524-527.
rule-otf-thumb —
harmful practices, 173-180.
influence of, 180-182.
reasons for, 182-184.
summarized, 9-11.
seasonal use. See Seasonal use.
Southern States, unsatisfactory, 573.
State and Federal cooperation. 548.
State, professional administrative agency
recommended, 545.
Taylor Grazing Act —
favorable provisions, 286.
shortcomings, 286-294.
Management, wildlife —
cooperation, State and Federal, program,
544.
crop method needed. 351.
dual use of range, dangers in, 178.
environment a necessary factor, 352.
factual basis inadequate, 355.
land ownership a complicating factor,
352-353.
legislation, restrictive, defeats, 355.
objectives, 362.
problems —
divided jurisdiction, 352.
summarized, 361.
public domain, needed on, 353.
refuges alone inadequate, 353—354.
requirements, summary, 41.
State legislation needed, 547.
Marketing —
accessibility, factor in submarginal range,
412-413.
differential in livestock production
(chart), 14.
effects of depletion, 404.
problems, 209.
limitations of public assistance. 428.
profits and depletion, relation to, 205-208.
Marketing — Continued.
program, 496.
public aid, 543.
requirements, summary, 50.
Melis, P. E., author, 249, 451.
Metropolitan centers, dependent on range
agriculture, 393.
Mexican cession (map), 214.
Mineral laws —
abuse of, 226.
amendments required, 541.
Missions as livestock centers, 120.
Montana range lands, ownership pattern
(map), 239.
Moose —
Alaska, 590.
national forests —
numbers and trend (table), 360.
trends (chart), 358.
Mountain goats —
Alaska, 591.
national forests, numbers and trend
(table), 360.
Mountain regions —
crop and range agriculture, description,
erosion, 310.
Mountain sheep —
national forests —
decrease (chart), 358.
numbers and trend (table), 360.
«^°£k fl°ws, caused by range depletion,
oOb— o07.
Mule production, southern range 57->
table, 568.
Multiple use —
Federal range, legislation required, 538.
national forests, policy and results, 249,
2o£«
program —
grazing-district lands, 454.
Indian lands, 475.
national forests, 454.
State range, 480.
Taylor Grazing Act, not recognized in
287.
Municipal range. See State and countv
range.
Municipal watersheds, 335.
Municipalities, responsibility, watershed pro-
tection, 518.
National-forest range —
administration —
objectives, summary, 34.
policies, 253.
principles, summarized, 54.
program, 452-467.
reasons for success, 277.
unsolved problems, 264-267
alienated lands, program, 460
area (chart), 46.
available (table), 451.
by types (table), 82.
total and available (tables), 7, 51
big game —
numbers and trend (table). 360
population trends (chart), 358.
boundary adjustments, program, 462.
depletion —
area (tables), 7, 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
good and poor condition (charts), 30,
31.
on alienated land, prevention of, 299.
open-forest type (table), 107.
Pacific-bunchgrass type (table), 91.
pinon-juniper type (table), 102.
plant types (table), 250.
range restored by seasonal use, 259.
sagebrush-grass type (table), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 100.
semidesert-grass type (table), 93.
short-grass type (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub type (table), 97.
tall-grass type (table), 87.
INDEX
613
National-forest range — Continued,
depletion — continued.
trends, 250.
trends (chart), 7.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
woodland-chaparral type (table), 105.
five-year program, investment and annual
cost (tables), 464, 550.
summarized, 63.
grazing capacity, 259.
overstocking (table), 164.
present and potential (chart), 46.
present and potential (table), 509.
grazing permits —
abandonment (table), 273.
distribution by size classes and years
(table), 270.
grazing privileges, distribution of, 267-
274.
improvements and cultural practices, 262.
integration with agriculture, program,
457-459.
livestock management, 260-261.
machinery of administration, program,
463.
management costs —
fencing (table), 512.
five-year program, 63, 549
plans and surveys (table), 514.
water developments (table), 512.
management plans, 263.
management practices, 258-264.
multiple use —
policy, 254.
program, 454.
obstacles to management development,
264-267.
overstocking percent (chart), 48.
progress of conservation measures, sum-
mary, 33-35.
range management administrative pro-
gram, 455.
reseeding cost (table), 506.
restoration program costs, summarized,
63.
results of 30 years' controlled use,
274-277.
seasonal use, 209.
silting major streams (chart), 24.
use —
administration, 255-257.
intensified by World War demands,
130.
watersheds eroding (chart), 23.
National forests —
area, compared to forests on farms
(chart), 469.
establishment, 251-253.
stabilizing factor in range use, 129.
in range territory (map), 32.
recreation. Bee Recreation,
results of watershed protection, 326.
table, 325.
visitors (chart), 372.
wildlife —
area available to (chart), 353.
areas recommended for (table), 357.
management, 355-361.
populations (table), 359.
refuges and reserves (table), 356.
National parks, recreation. See Recreation.
Navajo Indian reservation, effects of de-
pletion, 332-333.
Nebraska, range vs. other feed (chart),
159.
Needlegrass-lupine cover, as watershed pro-
tector (chart), 319.
New Mexico, range vs. other feed (chart),
158.
"New public domain." See Tax delin-
quency.
Nitrogen, loss in soil erosion, 328.
Northern desert valley regions, erosion, 313.
Northern elk herd, 344.
Open-forest type (map), 101.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 107.
areas (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value (table), 108.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 107.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 79.
present condition, description, 105-108.
reduction in density, 105.
"Open herding" encouraged, national forest
range, 262.
Oregon Territory (map), 214.
Organic material, loss in soil erosion, 327.
Outdoor recreation. See Recreation.
Overstocking (table), 164.
competition for range, 168.
conservation responsibilities evaded,
170.
cutting expenses at cost to range, 169.
lack of realization of consequences, 170.
pressure on public range officials, 169.
size of herds overemphasized, 168.
stocking on unsound oasis, 169.
early examples, 151.
evidences of —
declining numbers, 156.
declining numbers (chart), 157.
livestock losses and low production,
165-168.
livestock on supplemental feed, 154-
160.
range deterioration, 161-163.
stocking vs. grazing capacity, 164-165.
summarized. 9-11.
marketing difficulties, relation to, 208.
ownerships, percent (chart), 48.
plant indicators of, 162-164.
private range, animal units (chart), 48.
production costs and profits, relation to,
200.
remedy possible, 171.
rule-of-thumb practice, 173.
vegetation deteriorating, illustration, 175.
Ownership —
adjustments, in program for integrated
agriculture, 457-459.
Alaskan ranges, 584.
area (chart), 6.
table, 7.
available range, area and grazing capac-
ity (chart), 46.
consolidation, national forests and graz-
ing districts, legislation, 540.
contributing factor in accelerating ero-
sion, 325-326.
costs, management —
fencing (table), 512.
plans and surveys (table), 514.
water development (table), 512.
depletion-^-
average (chart), 6.
average (table), 7.
average, by types (table), 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
by classes (table), 114.
trends (chart), 7.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
distribution (chart), 81.
table, 82.
effects of unsound land policy, 238-245.
summarized, 11-13.
614
THE WESTERN RANGE
Ownership — Continued,
eroding areas (.chart), 23.
Indian lands, classes and holdings, 282.
lands publicly administered (tabulation),
235.
open-forest type, depletion (table), 107.
owned pasturage, costs, vs. leased range,
401.
Pacific-bunchgrass type, depletion (table) ,
91.
pinon-juniper type, depletion (table), 102.
private —
abandoned dry-farm land unsuitable,
243-244.
adaptability of range types (table),
conditioned by unsuitable land policy,
213-248.
estimated shifts to public ownership,
433-447.
extension service to, legislation, 542.
inadequate units cause failure, 398-
399.
land and livestock, program, 483-499.
problems, considerations governing
solution, 424-427.
problems, public acquisition a solution,
430-432.
problems, public assistance, possibili-
ties, 427-432.
program, improvement of rural social
and economic conditions, 498.
range type areas, future ownership
(table), 438.
range types favorable to, 436-439.
restrictions on range land disposal
needed, 541.
stabilization, program, 483-498.
watershed areas, suitable for public
acquisition (table), 441.
problems, 246, 447-450.
summarized, 37-38, 40.
public —
acquisition program, 57-59, 430-447.
administration program, 451-482.
available range (table), 51.
status of remaining lands, 230-235.
responsibility of States and Federal Gov-
ernment, program, 447-449.
sagebrush-grass type, depletion (table),
06.
salt-desert shrub type, depletion (table),
100.
semidesert-grass type, depletion (table),
93.
shifts proposed —
basis for, 433-435.
by types (table), 438.
lands with high public values, 440-445
legislation required, summary, 62.
submarginal range lands, 433-439.
short-grass type, depletion (table), 89.
silting lands (chart), 24.
southern desert-shrub type, depletion
(table), 97.
State —
disposition of range lands, legislation,
544.
tax-reverted range lands, program, 447.
stewardship, summary, 47.
submarginal private range land, 411-415.
submarginal range, losses from, summa-
rized, 19-22.
tall-grass type, depletion (table), 87.
types of. in range and cropland agricul-
ture, 385-386.
watershed conditions (table), 325.
watershed protection, responsibility, 517.
wildlife conservation, 519.
woodland - chaparral type, depletion
(table), 105.
Ownership pattern —
Colorado range (map), 239.
complicates unified wildlife management,
352-353.
effect on range resource, 245.
impedes national-forest range manage-
ment, 266.
Ownership pattern — Continued.
Montana range (map), 239.
railroad grants (map), 228.
i'aciflc-bunchgrass type (map), 85.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 91.
areas (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value (table), 91.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forests (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 91.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 74.
present condition, description, 90-91.
Packers and Stockyard Act, summary of,
207.
Palmer, L. J., author, 341, 501.
Pasture grasses, Southern States, 568-570.
Patents, homestead, since law of 1862
(table), 218.
Pecos elk herd, management hindered by
State laws, 352.
Pierson, Albert, acknowledgment, x.
Pinchot, Gifford, fight for conservation, 252.
Pinon-juniper type (map), 101.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 102.
areas (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 102.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 77.
present condition, description, 100-103.
Plains region, crop and range agriculture,
description, 386.
Plant cover —
denudation, cause of floods (table), 323.
effect of cover type —
on soil absorption (chart), 319.
on run-off and erosion (table), 320.
effect of density —
on run-off and erosion (table), 317.
on soil absorption (chart), 321.
geologic evidence of control of run-off,
122.
3:
c evidence of influence on erosion,
influence in watershed protection, 316-
324.
chart, 319.
table, 320.
on mountain slopes, vital to lowlands,
328.
survey, Alaska, 595.
Plant indicators of overgrazing, 162-164.
Plants, poisonous, eradication, program,
506.
Pleasant Grove elk herd, results of unwise
transplanting, 354.
Population —
Alaska, 584.
decreases, effect of depletion (table),
410.
dependent on range and cropland agri-
culture, 391-393.
INDEX
615
Powell, Lieutenant, report on effects of
land laws, 236.
Precipitation —
cyclic trends, effect on vegetation, 147-
148.
drought —
frequency (map), 140.
severity, East vs. West (chart), 139.
dry years, recurrence (chart), 141.
Eastern States vs. western range (chart),
136.
effect of dry seasons, 145.
effect of dry years on forage production,
142-143.
effect of long-time deficiencies (chart),
142.
guide in range use, 149-150.
influence on floods and erosion, 314.
livestock numbers not adjusted to (chart),
148.
relation to conservative stocking (chart),
seasonal fluctuations, 136-138.
vegetation, corresponding fluctuations,
142-148.
Predators —
Alaska, control, 592-597.
control, balance needed, 352.
on national forests (table), 359.
value in rodent control, 352.
Prices. See Livestock prices.
Private range —
acquisition, high public value, legislation
needed, 540.
area (chart), 46.
available (table), 7.
conservation practised, summary, 29-30.
conservation record. 294—300.
costs, management, 554.
fencing (table), 512.
plans and surveys (table), 514.
program, 64, 513.
water development (table), 512.
depletion (table), 7.
area (table), 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
open-forest type (table), 107.
Pacific-bunchgrass type (table), 91.
pinon-juniper type (table), 102.
sagebrush-grass type (table), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 100.
semidesert-grass type (table), 93.
short-grass type (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub type (table), 97.
tall grass type (table), 87.
trends, 7.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
woodland-chaparral type (table), 105.
game management, compensation, 494.
grazing capacity (table), 164.
present and potential (chart), 46.
present and potential (table), 509.
management requirements, summarized,
4o — 51,
overstocking (chart), 48.
table, 164.
problems and action required, summa-
rized, 38-39. 40.
restoration program, costs, 513.
summarized, 64.
shifts in ownership, legislation required,
summary, 62.
silting major streams (chart), 24.
stewardship, summary, 47.
submarginal portions, 411—415.
Federal acquisition, legislation, 539.
types (table), 82.
watersheds —
condition (table), 325.
eroding (chart), 23.
wildlife, control on, 519.
Production control, range, legislative pro-
gram, 543.
Production costs, livestock industry, rela-
tion to profits and depletion, 197-201.
Profits —
capital investments, relation to, 193--196.
credit facilities, relation to, 201-205.
factors in controlling, 208-209.
marketing, relation to, 205-208.
production costs, relation to, 197-201.
Program, range restoration and mainte-
nance, 419-555.
Public domain (see also Grazing-distrlct
lands) —
area, by States (table), 235.
effects of past policies of administration,
238-246.
need for watershed management, 454.
need for wildlife management, 353.
present status, 235.
unified management, legislation, 535.
Public Land Commission, report, 237.
Public lands —
areas administered (tabulation), 235.
present status, 230-235.
Rabbits, Alaska, 591.
Raber, Oran, acknowledgment, x.
Rachford. C. E., acknowledgment, x.
Railroad(s) —
factor in range development, 121.
grants —
effects of, summarized, 12.
in ownership pattern, 226-229.
in ownership pattern (map), 228.
in ownership pattern (table), 227.
Rainfall. See Precipitation.
Ranch size —
effect on range agriculture, 398-399.
trends (chart), 398.
table, 399.
Range abuse (see also Depletion) —
excessive stocking, 151-171.
faulty livestock management, 174-176.
reasons for, 182-184.
Range administration —
action required on problems, summarized,
39-40.
Federal —
jurisdiction in one Department, 66, 467-
jurisdiction, summarized, 52-53.
program, 462-465.
U. S. Department of Agriculture best
fitted for. 471-473.
Indian lands, program, 473-477.
public principles and requirements, sum-
marized, 51-59.
State lands, program. 477-481.
Range land agriculture. See Agriculture,
western ; Crop-farming.
Range allotment system, national forests,
261.
Range area(s). See Area(s). range.
Range cattle. See Cattle ; Livestock.
Range condition, research in standards lack-
ing, 192.
Range country. See Range territory.
Range deterioration. See Depletion.
Range exploitation —
erroneous financial philosophy, 210.
prices, extreme, 211.
Range extension. See Extension.
Range feed —
cheap, compensating marketing costs
(chart), 15.
decline in individual States, 157-159.
vs. other feed (chart), 18.
vs. supplemental feed in Arizona counties
(chart), 160.
Range forage. See Forage.
Range improvements and cultural practices,
national forests, 262.
Range improvements, program —
grazing-district lands, 464.
Indian lands, program, 476.
national-forest range, 463.
616
THE WESTERN RANGE
Range investigations. See Research, range.
Range land(s) (see also Area, range;
Land) —
Alaska, 581-598.
capital investment in (table). 194.
conservation the exception, 249-300.
summary, 30-35.
disposal —
early policies, 215.
Federal, 215-248.
homestead laws, 215-225.
land script, mineral laws, etc., 226.
railroads, etc., 226-229.
reasons for inadequate policies, 236-
238.
States, 231-234.
to private ownership, restrictions
urged. 541.
Texas, 230.
effect of restriction on wildlife, 343.
Federal administration —
problems and action required, sum-
marized, 39-40.
program, 452-467.
program, boundary adjustments, areas
(table), 462.
program, costs and returns (table),
466.
Indian, administration, present, 280-285.
national forest. See National-forest
range.
private. See Private range,
public —
administration program, 451-482.
integration with agriculture, program,
457-459.
public domain. See Grazing district
lands.
Southeast. 567-580.
map, 569.
State grants, present status (table), 232.
tax delinquent —
Colorado (table), 242.
Montana (table), 242.
tenure and control, types, 385-386.
use, interrelationship with western agri-
ture, 377-378.
water-yielding (chart). 22.
values, inflationary, public control, 491.
wildlife, 341-362.
additional areas, program (table), 357.
Range-livestock business. See Livestock in-
dustry and livestock production.
Range management. See Management,
range.
Range, national-forest. See National-forest
range.
Range plants —
list of species used in this report, 600-
603.
Southern States, native and introduced,
568-570.
watershed protectors (chart), 319.
Range problems and their solution, 1-69.
Range problems, summarized, 37-41.
Range productivity, on submarginal land,
Range rehabilitation. See Restoration,
range.
Range research. See Research.
Range resource (s) —
effects of past land policy, 245.
problems —
chart, 37.
summarized, 37-38.
Southern States, 568-571.
Range restoration. See Restoration, range.
"Range rights", 120.
danger of perpetuation on grazing dis-
tricts, 291.
Range territory (chart), 2.
acquisition by United States, 213-215.
map, 214.
climatic fluctuations, 135-142.
drought years, 138-141.
precipitation zones (map), 137.
recreational opportunities, 363-365.
Range types —
areas, original and present (table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
area (table), 6.
average (chart), 111.
average, by ownerships (table), 114.
by classes (table), 109.
by classes, in each type (chart), 112.
by cover types, 84-108.
thirty-year trends (chart), 115.
thirty-year trends (tables), 115. 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
438.
national forests, area and depletion
(table), 250.
\mership
ownerships (table), 82.
virgin, description, 72-80.
Range, ungrazed, present condition, 108.
Range use (See also Grazing) —
adjustment problems, 421-423.
climatic guides in, 149-150.
dry seasons, effect, 145.
exhaustion augmented by increase in
sheep. 125-127.
fires, effect on, 129.
goat-raising, effect on, 126.
grazing district lands, administration,
program, 453-473.
history, 119-134.
Indian lands, 279.
table, 279.
integratipn with agriculture, summar-
intensifled by World War demands, 130-
131
livestock and crop-farming, development,
national-forest administration, 256-257.
program, 453-473.
private range, program, 483-492.
productive lands put into crops, 127-129.
railroads, factor in, 121.
regional variations, 386-391.
Roosevelt commission, 152.
seasonal, improper, 177.
stabilization resulting from public-land
control, 129.
Southern States, economic trends, 574.
supplemental feeding, 154-161.
vs. grazing capacity (chart), 10.
Range vegetation, adaptability to climate,
142.
Range, virgin, description, 71.
Rabile owner" s. little owner ("rustlers"),
sheep-cattle feeds, 125-127.
wildlife reduction, 349-350
conservation requirements, summary, *J.
economic necessity, 365-368.
national forest —
increasing (chart), 372.
management, 371-375.
national parks, 371. _ .
on depleted range, losses in, summarized,'
nr? _ OQ
on depleted watersheds, imperiled 336.
range-management program, 521-5^2.
requirements, 376.
social and economic function of range,
o/*o _ QTA
Refuges," wildlife and game. See Wildlife.
Regulation, impractical solution of private
ownership problems, 429.
Reindeer grazing, Alaska, program, 59b.
Reindeer industry, Alaska, 588.
agencies contributing, 186-187.
al8
program,
458.
cost, present, 532.
effort expended in various branches, 187.
expenditures, annual, 187.
Federal, vs. livestock values (table), 188.
INDEX
617
Research — Continued,
lag in, 185-192.
examples of, 189.
obstacle to national forest range man-
agement, 267.
rule-of-thumb management encouraged,
184.
management, need for, 522.
need for coordination with allied projects,
530.
problems, action required, summarized,
40.
program. 523-533.
cost, 533-554.
costs, summarized, 65.
justification, 523.
legislation, 542.
responsibility for, 531.
summary, 59-61.
responsibility for, 61.
Southern States, program, 577.
workers, 188.
Reseeding. See Revegetation. artificial.
Reserves, wildlife. See Wildlife.
Reservoirs and distribution systems, West-
ern States, value (table), 330.
Reservoirs, storage, threatened by water-
shed conditions, 332, 337.
Restoration, range —
delayed by lost soil fertility, 328. .
effect of limitations on A. A. A., 494.
factor in submarginal range, 414.
jurisdiction in one department, key to,
66.
neglected problems, examples of, 189-192.
program, 504-506.
relation to stocking and grazing capacity
(table), 509.
responsibility for, 66, 248. .
returns from, summarized, 65, 68.
size of Job (table), 41.
Returns —
administrative program (table). 466.
ranee restoration program, summarized.
65.
Revogetation —
abandoned dry-farms, 243-244.
artificial —
disease-resistant plants, 507.
job required. 42.
program, 504-506.
program, costs, 506.
prosrram, extent and cost by owner-
ships (table), 506.
research inadequate. 191.
research program, 527.
tests on national forest range, 262.
balance between natural and artificial,
42.
natural, possible on most range lands,
504.
Reynolds. R. V.. acknowledgment, x.
Roberts. P. H . author. 377.
Robinson, C. S., acknowledgment, x.
Rodents-
control —
national forest range, 262.
program, 507.
damasre to range, 345.
Roosevelt, Theodore —
fight for conservation. 252.
Public Land Commission appointed. 237.
Rule-of-thumb management. See Manage-
ment.
Run-off (see also Erosion) —
effect of vegetation change on, 816-324.
table, 317.
influence of slope, soil, and rainfall on
(table). 320.
on burned and unburned watersheds (tr-
ble), 323.
Rural Resettlement Administration —
acknowledgment, x.
land purchase program, 422, 539.
S
Sagebrush-grass type (map), 95.
area virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 96.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value, 95.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 435-
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 96.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 75.
Present condition, description. 94-96.
b-desert shrub type (map), 95.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 100.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value (table), 99.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables). 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 4db-
439
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 99'.
table. 509.
original condition, description, 77.
present condition, description, 98-100.
Salting, livestock distribution controlled by,
176
Sample plots, national forest, check on range
condition. 259.
used in survey for this report (footnote),
84.
Sanctuaries, wildlife conservation program,
pr -| Q
Sand 'Hills, Nebraska, range conservation,
299
San Joaquin Valley quail, depletion, 345.
Script. See Land script.
Seasonal use —
abuses —
effect on range agriculture, 403.
rule-of-thumb, 177.
adjustments required, summary, 42.
areas (map), 384.
in agricultural pattern. 383-385.
management program, 510.
national forests, 259.
range research, 524-527.
Sediment removed, as affected by vegetation
change (table), 317.
Semidesert-grass type (map), 85.
area virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table) , 93.
area (table), 109.
average (chart). 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value (table), 92.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables). 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
618
THE WESTERN RANGE
Semidesert-grass type — Continued.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 93.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 75.
present condition, description, 92-94.
Settlement, of range area, intensified range
depletion, 127-129.
Sheep (see also Livestock) —
bed-grounds, excessive use, 175.
grazing operation, costs (table), 198.
mountain. See Mountain sheep,
ratio ewe value to total investment
(table), 195.
Sheepmen, provoke range wars, 125-127.
Sherman, E. A., study of Grazing Home-
stead Law, 222.
Short-grass type (map), 85.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 89.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value, 89.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national- forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 88.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 73.
present condition, description, 88-90.
Show, S. B., author, 341, 421, 535.
Silting—
areas (map), 331.
from eroding areas, into major streams
(chart), 23.
Irrigation projects damaged, 332.
losses from, summarized, 22-25.
major streams, from range lands, owner-
ships (chart), 24.
Simpson, A. A., author, 81, 249, 451.
Sitgreaves —
deer and elk herds, competition, 345.
elk herd, management hindered by State
laws, 352.
Slope, influence of steepness on run-off
and erosion (table), 320.
Soil, role in erosion, 315.
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment
Act, aid in range restoration, 49.
Soil-
depletion —
causes, 84.
handicap to range restoration, 266.
erosion. See Erosion,
fertility, lost through depletion, 327-328,
science, research program, 524-527.
Sources of data (footnote), 84.
Southern desert shrub type (map), 95.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 97.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage values, 97.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private ranges (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
grazing capacity, original' and present
(chart), 97.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 76.
present condition, description, 96-98.
submarginal as private range, 20.
Southern forest ranges, 567-580.
list of literature, 578.
livestock, number and value (table), 568.
map, 569.
Southwest —
crop and range agriculture, description,
088.
erosion in, 311.
Spring-Fall ranges. See Seasonal use.
Spring-Fall-Winter ranges. See Seasonal
use.
Standing, A. R., author, 81, 249, 451.
Starvation losses, managed and unmanaged
range (chart), 406.
State, range-land ownership, responsibility,
447-449.
State and county range —
administration —
principles, summarized, 56.
program, 477-481.
area (chart), 46.
available (table), 7.
by types (table), 82.
total and available (table), 451.
costs, management —
fencing (table), 512.
plans and surveys (table), 514.
water development (table), 512.
costs, program, 552.
summarized, 64.
depletion —
by area (table), 114.
by classes (chart), 113.
open-forest type (table), 107.
Pacific-bunchgrass type (table), 91.
pinon-juniper type (table), 102.
sagebrush-grass type (table), 96.
salt-desert shrub type (table), 100.
semidesert-grass type (table), 93.
short-grass type (table), 89.
southern desert-shrub type (table), 97.
tall-grass type (table), '87.
trends (chart), 7.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
woodland-chaparral type (table), 105.
grazing capacity —
overstocking (table), 164.
present and potential (chart), 46.
present and potential (table), 509.
overstocking percent (chart), 48.
problems and action required, summar-
ized, 39, 40.
silting major streams (chart). 24.
watersheds —
condition (table), 325.
eroding (chart), 23.
within national forests, management, 263.
State lands —
disposal policies, 231-234.
grants, present status (table), 232.
State legislation, program required, 544.
summary, 62.
Stewardship, private range program, 484.
Stewart, George, author, 119, 483, 501.
Stock. See Livestock.
Stocking —
conservative, on basis of precipitation
(chart), 144.
excessive, 151-171.
relation to range restoration (table), 509.
Stockmen —
administrators under Taylor Grazing Act,
293
status on national-forest range, 255-256.
slow to accept national forest principles,
264.
Stream flow —
Boise River (chart), 334.
effect of watershed vegetation on, 323-
324.
importance in water power production,
336.
regulation, research program, 528.
Submarginal cropping, effect on range agri-
culture, 396-397.
Submarginal private range, 411-415.
factor in stabilization, 485-487.
legislative program, 539.
INDEX
619
Submarginal private range — Continued.
Icsses from, summarized, 19.
shifts to public ownership, program, 433-
439.
Subsidies, weaknesses as solution of private
ownership problems, 429.
Summary of report —
in brief, vn.
in full, 1-69.
Summer ranges. See Seasonal use.
Sun River Elk herd, 344.
Supplemental feeding —
effect on range agriculture, 401-402.
increased dependence on (chart). 18.
increase in individual States, 157-159.
on range area, 154-161.
practice begun, 127.
vs. range feed (chart), 157.
Supply towns, dependent on range agri-
culture, 392.
Sustained yield management —
importance in integrated agriculture, 415-
418.
specific examples in Idaho and California,
296.
Talbot, M. W., author, 185.
Tall-grass type (map), 85.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 87.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart), 112.
forage value, 87.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436—
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 87.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 72.
present condition, description, 86-88.
Taxation —
factor in submarginal range, 413.
lieu payments to States —
for Federal range lands, legislation, 540.
from grazing fees, 459.
private lands, program, 497.
revision to encourage private ownership,
study needed, 547.
specific problems, 247.
Tax delinquency —
range country, 241-243.
specific States-
Colorado (table), 242.
Montana (table), 242.
State legislation —
required, 545.
required, summarized. 56.
Tax-reverted lands, problem of ownership,
program, 447.
Taylor Grazing Act —
amendments recommended. 535, 537.
favorable provisions of, 286.
modifications in program for integrated
agriculture, 458. 461.
shortcomings of, 286-294.
summary of provisions, 32-33.
Tehachapi flood, 307.
Texas —
annexation and purchase (map), 214.
cattle raising, early development, 121.
public land, policies, 230.
Thayer, Marshall, acknowledgement, x.
Three-year Homestead Law. 217.
Timber production, livestock management
requirements, summary, 44.
Timber reproduction —
damage from improper seasonal use, 178.
destroyed by brush burning, 180.
Timbered areas unused for grazing (map),
331.
"Tin roof" fallacy in watershed protec-
tion, 324.
Topography, influence on erosion, 315.
Transmittal, letters of, Hi-vi.
Tundra and grasslands, Alaska, description,
586.
Upland hardwood forest ranges, Southern
States (area), 568.
Upson, Arthur, acknowledgment, x.
Utah-
floods, increasing prevalence and damage,
306-308, 335.
range vs. other feed (chart), 159.
Vegetation (see also Depletion; Forage;
Plant cover; Range types) —
Alaska, 585-587.
survey, 595.
decrease in stand after drought, 145-146.
deterioration —
evidence of overstocking, 161-168.
from rule-of-thumb management, 173-
182.
on game range, 178, 344.
effect of climatic cycles, 147-148.
effect on run-off and erosion, 316-324.
summarized, 24.
table, 317.
fluctuations corresponding to climate,
142-148.
grass tuft area, effect of drought, 146.
native species on abandoned dry farms
(table), 244.
original condition on range, 71-80.
perennial grasses eliminated by brush
burning, 180.
range species in this report, 600-603.
restoration, 516.
See also Restoration, range,
soil absorption, effect on (chart), 320.
types, range, 599.
undesirable species, increase after fires,
129.
watershed —
cause and cure of run-off and erosion,
316-324.
effect on run-off and silting (table),
317.
net effect, 323.
protection value, research inadequate,
190.
W
Wahlenberg, W. G., author, 567.
Wallace, R. S., acknowledgment, x.
Wasatch Plateau, run-off, test areas, (table),
317.
Water development, in livestock distribu-
tion (table), 512.
Water, waste, cost of, 333.
Waterfowl —
Alaska, 591
flyways (maps), 347.
losses from misuse of land, 346.
range areas needed (table), 445.
Watering-places, livestock concentration,
176.
Water power, dependent on stream flow, 336.
Watershed (s) —
burned and unburned, run-off and erosion
(table), 323.
depletion, economic and social conse-
quences, 326-338.
erosion and silting (table), 325.
management, research program, 528.
municipal, 335.
original condition, 303-304.
private lands (table), 441.
water-yielding and silt-producing (map),
331.
Watershed protection —
national forests, 275, 326.
necessary provisions, summarized, 43-44.
ownership responsibility, 517.
620
THE WESTERN RANGE
Watershed protection — Continued,
plant cover —
geologic evidence of influence of, 322.
importance of, 316-324
range plants effective in (chart), 319.
role of vegetation, research lacking,
"tin roof" fallacy, 324.
program, 515-518.
regional problem, 333-335.
shifts to public ownership required, 440-
445.
social and economic function of range,
303-339.
Watershed restoration, possibilities, 338-
339.
Watershed values —
impaired by erosion and silting, summary,
22-25.
relation to grazing values, 337.
Water shortage, Boise River —
actual and possible (chart), 334.
under actual peak flow (chart), 334.
Water-yielding areas (map), 331.
on range land (chart), 22.
silting, by ownerships (table). 325.
Watts, L. F., author, 213, 377, 501.
Weather Bureau, acknowledgment, x.
Weed cover, annual, as watershed protector
(chart), 319.
Western agriculture. See Agriculture ;
Crop-farming.
Wheat farming, 382-383.
Whitham, J. C., acknowledgment, x.
Wildlife-
Alaska, 589.
management program, 597.
conservation —
biological problem, 355.
progress and shortcomings, 350-361.
range management, program, 518-520.
shifts to public ownership of land re-
quired, 445-446.
depletion of watersheds, imperiled by,
336.
economic value, 349-350.
environment, importance, 341.
losses in, on depleted range, summarized,
25-27.
management. See Management,
national-forest areas available to (chart),
353.
national forest range, results of manage-
ment, 275.
Wildlife— Continued.
original abundance, 342.
overstocking, danger of, 353-354.
overutilization, 348.
range areas needed (table), 445.
reduced by changes in range territory,
342-346.
refuges and reserves —
additional, recommended (table), 357.
conservation program, 519.
inadequate alone to solve problem,
353-354.
inside and outside national forests
(table), 356-357.
research program, 529.
social (recreational) and economic values,
349-350.
social and economic functions of range
for, 341-362.
southern ranges, 572.
transplantation, 354.
use of livestock range, research inade-
quate, 191.
value to range, 350.
virgin range habitats, 73-80.
waterfowl destruction, 346.
Wind erosion, 315.
areas of (map), 305.
Winter ranges. See Seasonal use.
Withdrawal of grazing land. See Closure.
Woodland-chaparral type (map), 101.
area, virgin and present, by ownerships
(table), 82.
composition, 599.
depletion —
all ownerships (table), 105.
area (table), 109.
average (chart), 111.
by classes (chart). 112.
forage value (table), 104.
grazing-district lands (table), 285.
national-forest range (table), 250.
private range (table), 295.
trends (tables), 115, 116.
favorableness for private ownership, 436-
439.
grazing capacity, original and present
(chart), 104.
table, 509.
original condition, description, 78.
present condition, description, 103-105.
Wool production, 378.
World War, effect on national-forest range
management, 265.
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